AI Surveillance Emerges as Flashpoint in Midterm Races

Flock's license-plate cameras have become the latest symbol of AI unease on the campaign trail, right alongside data centers. Once a niche policy topic, artificial intelligence is now fueling ads, stump speeches, and legislation, with candidates seizing on public discomfort over how much is being tracked and by whom. In Michigan, Axios reports, Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed is targeting Republican Mike Rogers over Flock, resurfacing a 2013 remark from Rogers—then House Intelligence chair—that "you can't have your privacy violated if you don't know your privacy is violated." In a video last week, El-Sayed asked voters: "Do you ever feel like you are in a cage, kind of stuck, being watched? Well, that is because you are," per the Washington Post.

House candidates are piling on: Ohio Democrat Kristina Knickerbocker slammed Rep. Mike Turner for championing Flock cameras later found to be conducting searches that violated local rules, while Tennessee's Chaz Molder labeled the network "big government overreach." Flock, which says its 120,000 cameras have aided about 1 million investigations and helped locate some 10,000 missing people, insists it is improving privacy protections, per Axios. Still, backlash has prompted cities to cut ties, vandals to target cameras, and lawmakers to respond with a GOP bill to block federal purchases and a call by Sen. Bernie Sanders to "stop AI mass surveillance."