Ring, AI, and the Dog That Opened the Door

What begins as a heartwarming Super Bowl ad for finding a lost pet may actually be the blueprints for a permanent surveillance state. Ring’s AI-powered "Search Party" promises to reunite families, but privacy experts warn of "surveillance creep" — the gradual expansion of wholesome technology into invasive monitoring networks. From the evolution of Social Security numbers to the tracking of political protestors via license plate readers, history proves that the most dangerous shifts in institutional power don't require a villain; they only require a series of small, reasonable-seeming steps. FPI Fellow George Watson explores why we must look past the immediate convenience of these tools to see the systemic costs before the infrastructure becomes too entrenched to roll back. Are we paying close enough attention to where this path leads? Click here to read the article.