Really, the concern here should not be the AI, but that the Dallas government, which is two thirds Democrat, with a Republican mayor who used to be a Democrat, is grading homes. And, of course, the bureaucracy is usually left leaning. There was really no need to mention AI at all, that’s an attempt to make it scary
Dallas, your garbage truck is quietly scoring your home
Getting an HOA violation for an overgrown bush or improper parking used to be the work of a nosey neighbor. In some Dallas neighborhoods, that work is now being done by a garbage truck—fitted with an AI surveillance camera.
Since April, Dallas has installed dozens of AI powered cameras onto local garbage trucks to scan homes and buildings for potential code violations. The cameras come from Alabama-based technology company City Detect, which uses its own AI software to generate “blight-scores” for homes and buildings the cameras capture.
The City of Dallas in December is currently the largest municipality in Texas to contract with City Detect, approving a three-year, $2.5 million agreement for 100 cameras on nearly 50 sanitation vehicles dispatched around the city. Other North Texas cities affiliated with the company include Coppell and Little Elm.
According to City Detects website, their technology is aimed to create a “positive social impact” by providing detailed insights on sidewalk debris, grass height, litter, paint issues and others.The company maintains and stores the data while sharing it with Dallas’ sanitation and compliance department.
Is this a good thing or bad thing that the city will know issues on city property? But, really, shouldn’t the city have people who come around on a schedule to deal with maintenance on sidewalks, grass, etc?
While city leaders have defended the technology as an efficiency tool for addressing violations more quickly, it arrives at a time when distrust in AI-surveillance cameras relating to companies like Flock are at an all time high.
Whether it is AI or not makes zero difference. The city is using them to surveil citizen’s homes in a seriously naggy manner pretty much once every week, rather than code enforcement and such coming around periodically.
“The staff’s desire is to be able to have a cleaner, more tidy, orderly city, right? My concern is, as we’re learning more about AI and the lack of privacy and lack of protections, does the city have those protections in place to make sure my home, your home, our residents’ homes, and our privacy are protected,” Dallas City Council Member Chad West said in an interview with Fox4.
Do they, Chad? Why are you asking the question, you’re on the city council (also, I seriously dislike it all being capitalized).
Within four months of their deployment, the cameras have reportedly captured more than 20,000 potential code violations.
Thousands of residents received “courtesy notices” in the mail to correct things like driveway debris or overgrown weeds. Of that, 57 properties resulted in citations, which are issued after an actual code-officer comes to inspect the property.
The AI is not the problem: the problem is the consistent, weekly spying on the homes of citizens. Say, I wonder if they will do anything about gang and criminal activity?
Looks like AI has a name, and the name is Karen!
The city was already aware of those blighted areas without AI and did nothing. All of the big Democratic party-run cities have places called “slums” that are characterized by weeds, debris, trash, and homes that are not maintained. This is not a secret that needed AI to discover. Those governments are not going to do anything about fixing those places with or without AI.
Professor have you also noticed that all of those red gop run states also have impoverished rural areas?
9 out of 10 of the poorest states are red states.
9 out of 10 of the richest states are blue states.
7 of the states with the highest rates of suicide are red states.
The rural population is in decline especially among young people who move to cities for better educational social and employment opportunities.
That will continue.
Blue states also pay more to DC than they get back. Could we occasionally get either a thank you or at least a recognition for that ?
IF you had bothered to do any research “Professor you also would have seen that rural poverty rates are higher than urban rates 14% vs 11% that is 22% higher.
Everybody is entitled to their own opinions, but facts matter, data matters
Those rural poor are mostly white, therefore not an issue. Urban slums are for Black folk, therefore bad.
There are many more impoverished whites than Blacks – about double.
The government spends more on rural welfare programs than on urban welfare. The OBBBA has already started the shutdown of rural healthcare facilities. Ouch. No wonder people are pissed. Lazy MAGAts (former, LOL)?
BTW, Mr Donny has “earned” $2 billion since becoming prez again.
To Rimjob and johnnie boy…
Here’s your sign.
Bwaha! Lolgf!
MAGA47 Motherfuckers!
The state that has the highest rate of mortgage defaults?
Florida list its number 1 position to……South Carolina !
South Carolina longevity is pretty low at 74 years which is important to old people who are still happy and enjoying their lives.
Someone using an alias wrote:
It’s absolutely true that people in urban areas have greater dollar amounts of income, so when a specific dollar amount is set as the official poverty level, you’re going to see higher poverty rates in rural areas. But the real question is: do people live poorer in rural areas? Rents and housing prices are lower in rural areas, meaning that a poverty level income in a rural area costs a smaller percentage of a person’s income for housing than the same place in an urban area. Eating at restaurants costs less, though there’s usually less choice in restaurants.
BTW, your Commander commands you to call it SI, not AI. I’m gonna tell!
Actually, SI was already used as Synthetic Intelligence, not Dum(b) Donny’s Super Intelligence.
Were his advisors afraid to tell him?
In a city in which 100+º F is common in the summer, the city is going to worry when a homeowner, or more probably, a renter, hasn’t kept the grass mowed promptly?
Paint issues? In a city with a 16.7% poverty rate, the municipal government is going to go after homeowners who don’t have enough money to jump on repainting when a little bit starts to peel?
I can just imagine if they spot something done to a home without a permit! Had this been the case in Jim Thorpe, I can imagine the borough coming after me for building a second-story deck without a permit. And since the back door was installed during the kitchen remodel, a couple of years before we built the deck, we had a one story fall to the paver patio for a couple of years, which would also have been a code violation. F a bunch of nanny staters!
Here? We had a 24 x 32 pole barn/garage built without a permit. I rebuilt the side porch from the ground up, without a permit. We built a patio with a pergola ‘roof’ without a permit. We installed a fence around the yard part of our property without a permit.
I completely rewired and replumbed — I kept the existing waste lines — this house, all without any permits or inspections, though exterior camera shots wouldn’t reveal that. Heaven forfend, the drain line from the washing machine does not go into the septic tank, but simply disperses into the ground, like it is many places.
Democrats are already the party of fascist control, being pro-choice on exactly one thing, and now they want to police your neighborhood in a manner as though the whole city is one giant HOA.
Fascism is an extreme political system where a country is ruled by a single dictator who holds total power, puts the nation above individual rights, and uses violence to crush opposition.
Only a MAGAt would label zoning laws as “fascism”. And Speed limits! Vaccine mandates! Stop signs! Firearms restrictions! Seat belts! School requirements! Catalytic converters! Sewer systems! Drug laws! FDA, USDA, EPA! Police. Fire departments.
One might think gerrymandering by the party in power would by fascist. Citizen voting restrictions too.
Does Mr Dana dump his changed motor oil on the ground? Freedom!!
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