Written by: Haim Ravia, Dotan Hammer
The White House recently issued a memo encouraging the adoption of AI technologies across federal agencies in the United States. While the directive seeks to improve government efficiency, promote responsible AI use, and ensure it will not infringe on Americans’ rights, it also raises concerns about adverse impacts on civil rights, particularly regarding privacy and due process.
These concerns are exacerbated by a recent spike in governments’ use of AI and surveillance technology for security and policing purposes in the U.S. and the U.K. In the U.S., the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is reportedly building a database to identify and surveil immigrants, consolidating databases from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Social Security Administration (SSA), and voting records. Experts warn that interconnecting sensitive personal data at this scale could result in disastrous privacy violations also affecting citizens and certified foreign workers.
Meanwhile, the New York Police Department (NYPD) expanded its use of surveillance drones. While the drone’s intended use is as “first responders” to emergency dispatch calls, the NYPD admitted to using them for other purposes, such as routine patrols and investigating noise complaints. These uses raise alarm over the indiscriminate surveillance of unaware individuals and the lack of transparency and meaningful oversight which creates risks for abuse.
Similar concerns regarding police misuse of AI-enhanced surveillance are heard across the Atlantic, where London’s Metropolitan Police Service is rolling out permanent live facial recognition (LFR) cameras across public spaces. This expands the previous program where LFR cameras were placed on patrol vehicles. Criticism of the program includes the lack of regulatory oversight, inept AI training given to officers and lack of operation procedures.
At the same time, also in the U.K., authorities are developing a “murder prediction” program that uses algorithms to analyze the personal data of individuals known to law enforcement, to identify those deemed most likely to commit homicide. Similar to the DOGE initiative, the program is based on consolidating social security-related information with police databases. Critics have condemned the initiative as “dystopian” as well, warning of systemic biases that could be embedded within AI systems and existing data.
The trending creation of massive databases, the deployment of AI-enhanced tools by law enforcement, and the predictive policing programs highlight the potential for systematic errors and wrongful actions that require preemptive regulatory and technological oversight that the White House Memo seeks to implement.
Click here to read the White House’s Memorandum Regarding Accelerating Federal Use of AI through Innovation, Governance, and Public Trust.
