Spies in the sky: how worried should we be about the arrival of AI-enabled smart lamp-posts?

The new breed of camera-equipped streetlights has the potential to fight crime and track down missing persons. Or will it just take Britain one step closer to a surveillance state? How would you feel if your neighbourhood lamp-posts could recognise your number plate, and also your face? Maybe you wouldn’t mind, given how long we’ve had automatic number plate recognition and CCTV. What about if that lamp-post could power itself through its own solar panels, and perhaps find another use for any ex

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ethics.ai (28 July 2026), “Spies in the sky: how worried should we be about the arrival of AI-enabled smart lamp-posts?,” evidence record 14124, https://ethics.ai/record/14124 (originally published by The Guardian).

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