The US military wants to use its state-of-the-art AI tools to supercharge surveillance against Americans, making it easier than ever to monitor our movements, our search history, and our private associations. What this clash highlights most of all, however, is just how easily AI surveillance systems can be turned against the people in this country, and the urgent need for Congress to intervene. The defense department and other federal agencies already take the position that they can “lawfully” purchase Americans’ private data – including location history and web-browsing records – and search that data without a court order. As in other contexts, AI tools remove human friction from the work of surveillance, magnifying the dangers of digital spying by making it cheaper, faster and more detailed. Whether government agencies should be buying Americans’ private data, and whether they should be applying AI tools to analyze that data, are immensely consequential questions.

Source: The Guardian March 09, 2026 17:32 UTC