China Uses AI Camera to Capture Jaywalkers and Publicly Shame Them
A Chinese video surveillance system is publicly shaming people who jaywalk in the street.
In a recent livestream video, Twitch star Jake’n’Bake filmed the artificially intelligent (AI) surveillance system for jaywalkers that he encountered as he was traveling in Shanghai, China.
@livefailsshorts WALKING IN CHINA #twitch #china #jakenbake #twitchstreamer #twitchclips #twitchmoments #twitchfails #livestreamfails ♬ original sound – Live Fails
The AI camera devices situated at pedestrian crossings in Shangai film anyone crossing or walking in the street or road unlawfully.
Then, a huge LED screen shows the name and face of the individual that just jaywalked across the street and publicly shames the person for everyone to see.
“For anyone wondering, this is a clip from my live stream where we found that a lot of the crosswalks in China,” Jake’n’Bake writes in a comment accompanying his video.
“[They] actually have these podiums that tell you when to cross or not to cross. And I guess if you cross when it’s red, it takes a little photo to let you know to not do that again. Thought it was interesting.”
‘The World’s Most Heavily Surveilled City’
In 2019, The Guardian reported that the south-west Chinese city of Shanghai was the most world’s most heavily surveilled city with 2.6 million cameras.
The city’s surveillance system scans facial features of people on the streets from frames of video footage in real-time, creating a virtual map of the face. It can then match this information against details in a police database.
The Chinese government has also experimented with using surveillance cameras, facial recognition, and smart glasses to give each citizen a social credit score — which can sometimes lead to punishment.
The score can fluctuate based on a range of behaviors, like whether an individual jaywalks or buys too many video games.
With China’s millions of surveillance cameras, the government can record jaywalkers at city intersections, zero in on their faces, and then shame them on public video screens.
If an individual score gets too low on the “social credit system”, a Chinese citizen can be banned from buying a plane ticket, renting a house, accessing high-speed internet, or getting a loan.
Image credits: Header photo via TikTok/@livefailshorts.
