Artificial intelligence (AI) is often portrayed as a major technological breakthrough, promising efficiency and progress. However, beyond the media enthusiasm, it is also a formidable tool for surveillance, manipulation, and population control. Between mass surveillance, automated propaganda, and job destruction, who truly benefits from this revolution?
A Massive Surveillance Tool
AI has become an unprecedented lever for controlling populations. In China, the social credit system and facial recognition have turned surveillance into an unrelenting mechanism where every behaviour is monitored and sanctioned. In the West, the exploitation of personal data by companies like Google and Palantir enables governments to track citizens under the guise of security.
The debate is intense: should privacy be sacrificed in the name of protection? The widespread adoption of these technologies, combined with increasingly permissive surveillance laws, poses a serious threat to fundamental freedoms.
Algorithmic Manipulation: The Era of Automated Propaganda
Deepfakes, biased moderation on social networks, AI-generated news articles, AI is not just a surveillance tool; it has also become an instrument for narrative control.
Algorithms today decide the content we see online, amplifying certain information while suppressing others. Numerous studies have shown that these systems fuel polarisation and misinformation, exacerbating political and social tensions. During election periods, these tools become formidable weapons: manipulated videos of candidates, automated disinformation campaigns, and the strategic shaping of trending topics on social media.
Who controls these algorithms? Behind the facade of technological neutrality lie entrenched economic and political interests.
AI: An Economic Monopoly?
Who owns AI? OpenAI, Microsoft, Google DeepMind, just a handful of multinational corporations dominate the market, concentrating computing power, patents, and datasets essential for developing the most advanced artificial intelligences.
Governments struggle to keep up with this technological concentration. AI is becoming a geopolitical weapon between major powers, notably the United States and China, both investing massively to maintain their lead. Meanwhile, small businesses and developing nations struggle to access the necessary tools for innovation.
A Threat to Employment
AI is often touted as a job-creating innovation, but reality tells a different story. Many professions are under threat: customer service automation, AI-driven content creation, logistics automation, even intellectual fields such as law and medicine are seeing AI encroach upon their processes.
The emerging economic model is concerning: wealth is increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few tech giants, while the middle class faces growing precarity, constantly forced to adapt to an accelerating wave of automation.
Deeply Human Biases
Far from being neutral, AI systems reflect and amplify the biases of their creators. Multiple studies have demonstrated that facial recognition algorithms often misidentify people of colour, leading to wrongful arrests. Similarly, AI-driven recruitment tools have been shown to favour certain profiles over others, exacerbating existing inequalities in the job market.
The opacity of these systems is a major issue. Who decides the criteria used by these algorithms? Why are certain decisions made while others are not? At present, few regulations ensure genuine accountability on these questions.
Towards the Militarisation of AI?
Armies worldwide are heavily investing in artificial intelligence. Autonomous drones capable of making lethal decisions without human intervention, AI-driven cyber warfare, predictive surveillance used to identify “threats” before they act.
Tomorrow’s wars will no longer be fought by soldiers but by machines. This automation raises a critical question: who is accountable in case of error? Can life-and-death decisions truly be delegated to an AI?
A Future Under Heavy Surveillance
AI is already at the core of power structures. Can democratic debate keep up with a technology evolving faster than regulation? Will governments have the willingness (or the capability) to limit its use for ethical purposes?
The future of AI is no longer solely dependent on technological advancements but on who sets the rules. Today, neither citizens nor governments hold the reins, rather, a handful of private corporations with opaque ambitions dictate the course. A revolution under control..?
G.S.
Sources and References:
- Reports from CNIL and the Electronic Frontier Foundation on algorithmic surveillance.
- MIT and Stanford studies on algorithmic bias and employment impact.
- Investigative journalism on Big Tech’s involvement in surveillance and data exploitation.
