Ellison, at age 80, envisions a future where mass video surveillance becomes the standard.
In his view, this will encourage citizens to “be on their best behavior.”
Privacy appears to be of little concern to Larry Ellison, the founder of Oracle, who stepped down as CEO in 2014 and now serves as executive chairman and CTO. He believes that for the sake of a safer society, having millions of surveillance cameras constantly monitoring and recording our activities is a necessary sacrifice.
Ellison made some controversial statements at a recent financial meeting of his company. During the Q&A, he described a world in which artificial intelligence systems would constantly monitor citizens through a massive network of cameras and drones with the goal of preventing people from breaking the law.
In his vision, AI models would analyze footage from security cameras, those worn by police officers, those used as video doorbells, and those integrated into vehicles in order to create a safer society.
According to Ellison, this extensive video surveillance will have a very positive effect: “Citizens will be on their best behavior because we’re constantly recording and reporting everything that’s going on.”
The billionaire–one of the top 10 richest individuals in the world who briefly surpassed Jeff Bezos in the wealth rankings–believes AI-controlled drones will eventually replace police cars in high-speed chases. In those instances, he explained, “You just have a drone follow the car. I mean, it’s very, very simple. The new generation of autonomous drones.”
Ellison’s statements reignite the debate on the delicate balance between privacy and security. It’s a topic that has been explored for a long time, with George Orwell’s 1984 as a clear reference point.
In the novel, a totalitarian government led by the famous “Big Brother” uses “telescreens” to constantly monitor citizens. In that society, security was almost absolute, but privacy had all but disappeared.
China has been using automated video surveillance systems for years. The “Sharp Eyes” program consists of a system with at least 20 million cameras that are distributed in cities and rural areas. The aim of this technology is to collect as much information as possible of the activity of citizens, creating a de facto “Big Brother” in the country.
Take Our Money, Mr. Huang
Ellison’s speech is obviously self-serving. The implementation of these extensive video surveillance systems will require a massive infrastructure in terms of storage, cameras, and AI systems. This is where Oracle comes in. It’s preparing its own data center megaproject with thousands of Nvidia GPUs.
More details about Oracle’s project have emerged recently, and it’s notable for both its size and the power source it plans to use: three SMR nuclear reactors providing 1 GW of power.
According to Ellison, he and Elon Musk recently had dinner with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, which he jokingly described as “me and Elon begging Jensen for GPUs… ‘Please take our money... No, no, take more. You’re not taking enough. We need you to take more of our money, please.’” Despite the humor, this anecdote underscores how crucial it is for Musk and Ellison to acquire these cards to power their specialized AI data centers.
Image | Oracle
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