{
  "id": 14124,
  "url": "https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jul/28/spies-in-sky-worried-ai-enabled-smart-lamp-posts-surveillance",
  "title": "Spies in the sky: how worried should we be about the arrival of AI-enabled smart lamp-posts?",
  "summary": "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",
  "authors": "Zoe Williams",
  "category": "news",
  "topics": "privacy-surveillance",
  "orgs": null,
  "regions": "uk",
  "published_at": "2026-07-28T10:00:01.000Z",
  "fetched_at": "2026-07-29T05:10:12.205Z",
  "source_slug": "guardian-ai",
  "source_name": "The Guardian",
  "source_homepage": "https://www.theguardian.com",
  "ethics_ai_record_url": "https://ethics.ai/record/14124",
  "original_url": "https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jul/28/spies-in-sky-worried-ai-enabled-smart-lamp-posts-surveillance",
  "evidence_status": "source-only",
  "attribution": "via ethics.ai"
}