Author: Frank Salvato

A man dressed as Darth Vader used a San Diego public-safety meeting to deliver a biting satirical protest against the city’s use of Flock Safety surveillance cameras, sarcastically praising automated license-plate readers as tools useful for tracking “rebel scum,” children, and even an ex-girlfriend. Behind the humor is a growing national debate over government surveillance: Flock’s cameras can capture identifying information about vehicles passing through their field of view, giving police a potentially powerful investigative tool while raising concerns about privacy, warrantless tracking, data sharing, inaccurate matches, and abuse. San Diego has defended its deployment as an effective crime-fighting measure…

X says it uncovered a massive network of roughly 200,000 suspected Chinese inauthentic accounts, including approximately 200 accounts posting material capable of manipulating America’s debate over artificial-intelligence data centers and energy policy. The accounts pushed claims that AI facilities are driving up household electricity prices, straining the power grid, and enriching technology companies at consumers’ expense, sometimes using AI-generated cartoons and American-sounding identities. The discovery follows a separate June investigation that identified a likely China-origin influence operation dubbed “Data Center Bandwagon,” whose operators used AI to produce English-language content while posing as Americans. The evidence points to a serious foreign-influence…

New research indicates that older adults may be considerably better at recognizing day-to-day changes in their own cognitive abilities than previously assumed. In a study of 162 older adults who expressed concerns about cognitive changes despite performing normally on conventional screening, participants used smartwatches four times daily for one week to rate their mental sharpness and mood before completing short cognitive tests. When individuals rated themselves as less mentally sharp than their personal average, their objective test performance also declined, an association that persisted after researchers accounted for mood, age and other factors. The findings raise the possibility that smartwatches…

A free artificial intelligence boot camp is coming to Chicago this fall, offering high school students hands-on instruction in generative AI, machine learning and the practical use of emerging technologies. The three-day program, organized through the Mark Cuban Foundation and Youth Advocate Programs, will be held on consecutive Saturdays—Oct. 31, Nov. 7 and Nov. 14—and is open to students in grades 9 through 12. Participants will explore AI applications across healthcare, business, sports, science, computer science and the arts while learning about bias, privacy, transparency and other ethical considerations. Students will also complete a capstone project using AI to address…

Artificial intelligence has entered political campaigning with remarkable speed. Campaigns can now use AI to draft advertisements, generate images, translate messages, analyze voter concerns, create voiceovers, edit video, and produce material that once required teams of consultants and production professionals. None of these applications is inherently unethical. The ethical problem begins when artificial intelligence stops helping campaigns communicate and starts helping them deceive. That distinction should be central to the debate over AI-generated political advertising. Political advertising has never been an exercise in pure objectivity. Candidates naturally present themselves favorably, emphasize an opponent’s failures, select statistics supporting their arguments, and…

A Georgia aerospace startup is preparing to put a new form of American-made satellite protection into orbit, with Atomic-6’s lightweight Space Armor scheduled for its first operational deployment aboard Portal Space Systems’ Starburst-1 satellite on SpaceX’s Transporter-18 mission in October. The composite tile, less than an inch thick and roughly the weight of a smartphone, is designed to withstand impacts from tiny pieces of orbital debris traveling around 17,000 miles per hour while producing far less secondary debris than traditional metallic shielding. The technology addresses an increasingly serious problem as commercial, civilian and military activity expands in low Earth orbit:…

A security researcher’s discovery that dozens of Flock Safety cameras were reportedly accessible online without usernames, passwords, or encrypted footage is intensifying concerns about the rapidly expanding network of automated license-plate readers used by law enforcement. Researcher Benn Jordan says the exposed cameras allowed him to monitor locations and potentially connect license-plate information with people’s daily routines, while Flock maintains that its network has never been “hacked.” Separate security research identified 67 live camera feeds and debug interfaces allegedly exposed without authentication, while federal vulnerability records have documented security weaknesses affecting Flock license-plate-reader firmware. The revelations add a cybersecurity dimension…

Dallas-Fort Worth has climbed into the top five North American metropolitan areas for technology employment, surpassing greater Los Angeles as North Texas continues its emergence as a major center for technology, artificial intelligence, corporate investment, and skilled employment. The region added more than 37,000 technology positions between 2022 and 2025, an increase of roughly 19%, while related data show DFW becoming one of the nation’s strongest markets for current tech hiring and future job growth. The expansion reflects more than the arrival of traditional technology companies: financial services, telecommunications, manufacturing, defense, health care, transportation, and other industries are increasing their…

The Dallas Police Department plans to retain data collected by its automated Flock Safety license plate readers for one year, dramatically longer than the company’s newly recommended seven-day default and the department’s previous 30-day policy. Police officials argue that the longer window is necessary for complex investigations, serial crimes, and cases in which a vehicle does not become significant until months after an offense. Dallas operates more than 650 Flock cameras and committed roughly $5.7 million to a three-year contract in 2025. The decision comes amid growing nationwide scrutiny of automated license plate readers, including concerns about warrantless surveillance, interagency…

Uber is rolling out a live video streaming feature for teen accounts that allows parents and guardians to watch their teenager’s ride in real time through the driver’s front-facing phone camera. The feature, launched August 25 and expected to expand nationwide over the coming weeks, supplements existing teen protections such as PIN verification, live trip tracking, RideCheck alerts, safety assistance, and optional audio recording. Drivers must have livestreaming enabled, and both the driver and teen are notified when a guardian begins viewing the feed. Uber says only linked parents or guardians can access the encrypted stream and that the video…