AI-Powered Undercover Bot for Cops
April 17th, 2025Via: Wired:
American police departments near the United States-Mexico border are paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for an unproven and secretive technology that uses AI-generated online personas designed to interact with and collect intelligence on “college protesters,” “radicalized” political activists, and suspected drug and human traffickers, according to internal documents, contracts, and communications that 404 Media obtained via public records requests.
Massive Blue, the New York–based company that is selling police departments this technology, calls its product Overwatch, which it markets as an “AI-powered force multiplier for public safety” that “deploys lifelike virtual agents, which infiltrate and engage criminal networks across various channels.” According to a presentation obtained by 404 Media, Massive Blue is offering cops these virtual personas that can be deployed across the internet with the express purpose of interacting with suspects over text messages and social media.
If these bots are made to be as charming as the ones that entice teenage boys into committing suicide, then they could infiltrate an online group, get personal with one of its members, and manipulate him into doing something bad that he wouldn’t otherwise do, with the authorities blaming the whole group and hiding or deleting the evidence.