AI News: Paris Olympics to Feature AI-Based Security Surveillance

Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered surveillance cameras that would be used at the Olympic Games are currently undergoing testing.

AI-Powered Camera Entering Testing Phase Ahead of Paris Olympics

Per a report from The Telegraph, the upcoming Paris Olympics plans to feature a controversial AI-powered camera that is capable of detecting up to eight disturbances during the games. The nature of suspicions that the tool can identify are traffic that goes against the flow, the presence of people in prohibited zones, crowd movement, abandoned packages, the presence or use of weapons, overcrowding, a body on the ground, and fire.

In preparation for its actual usage, the French police have decided to test the surveillance cameras at two Depeche Mode concerts that will be held in Paris this week. Therefore, individuals attending the Depeche Mode concerts held both on Sunday and Tuesday will become the test subjects for the trial of the camera.

Six such AI-powered cameras have been deployed to Accor Arena. They are situated in and around the arena to check how they monitor crowd movement as well as how well they can detect suspicious movements. It is worth noting that there is a rule in Paris that permits the use of AI in sporting and recreational activities, hence there is currently no violation of laws.

The law was conceived as a tool to avoid the recurrence of an unfortunate situation that happened at the 2022 Champions League Final game which was held at the Stade de France between Liverpool and Real Madrid. Some fans struggled to get out of the crowd and ended up being pepper-sprayed. 

AI Use Cases Cuts Across Several Industries

The potential use of the controversial surveillance cameras underscores how several industries are gradually leveraging the power of AI. 

The innovative technology is gradually finding use cases in unique areas like the United States military which recently decided to incorporate AI-based software to find targets in war zones. 

Apart from the security sector, like in the case of the French police, AI is equally finding a footing in the blockchain ecosystem, entertainment sector, and several others. 

Back in February, popular actor and film producer Tyler Perry suspended the construction of an $800 million movie studio after discovering that OpenAI’s new tool Sora AI could create videos from textual descriptions. 

In the coming days, there are bound to be more use cases for the growing technology and several tech giants like NVIDIA and Microsoft are positioning to ride the wave in the AI world.