China’s Artificial Intelligence Surveillance State Goes Global - The Atlantic

Xi Jinping is using artificial intelligence to enhance his government’s totalitarian control... exporting ... to regimes around the globe... all-seeing digital system of social control... precog algorithms that identify potential dissenters in real time ...

every person ... identified, instantly, by AI matching them to an ocean of personal data... and their ... protein-construction schema ... travel records, friends and associates, reading habits, purchases ...

coronavirus ... An algorithm assigned people a color code—green, yellow, or red—that determined their ability to take transit or enter buildings ... an AI-powered authoritarian bloc led by China could warp the geopolitics of this century...

Xinjiang’s Muslim minority... test population ... police have since forced them to install nanny apps ... algorithms to hunt for “ideological viruses” ... scan chat logs for Quran verses, and look for Arabic script in memes ... police... at checkpoints, scrolling through recent calls and texts... digital inactivity itself can raise suspicions ... Electricity use monitored ... could indicate an unregistered resident... surveillance ... Footage ... processed by algorithms that match faces with snapshots taken by police at “health checks” [where] police ... measure height and take a blood sample... record voices and swab DNA...

Xinjiang as a laboratory to fine-tune the... digital panopticon ... phones’ data can now be attached to a specific person’s face ... City Brain ... automated nerve center... synthesizing data streams from ... sensors ... throughout an urban environment... [both] benign technocratic functions ... and integrated surveillance ... facial-recognition cameras ... cameras fastened to lampposts ... [hidden] in traffic cones... strapped to officers ... in-store cameras... Automated vehicles will be covered in a whole host of sensors ...

[all] stitched together... a 3-D model of the city that’s updated second by second... every human’s location ... time-synced to audio from ... smart speakers, smartwatches... technology that can recognize individuals by their “voiceprint.” ... emotion-tracking software to monitor ... response to ... a Xi speech ... meaningful ... a precog algorithm... drones... gigapixel cameras ... license-plate reading and gait recognition ... already ... disguised as doves ...

data profile for ... citizens... including ... every appearance in surveilled space... communications and purchases... threat risk to the party’s power ... updated in real time ... government-ID number, police records, tax returns, property filings, and employment history... medical records and DNA ...

autocrats are usually felled by coups or mass protests... require ... political organization.... impossible in societies watched by pervasive automated surveillance...

in Serbia... a “safe-city system,” ... facial-recognition cameras and joint patrols conducted by Serbian and Chinese police ...

predatory lending to sell telecommunications equipment at a significant discount to developing countries... China in a position to control those networks and their data...