AI Drones Used In Gaza Now Surveilling American Cities – Cincinnati Projects 90% of Calls Will Be First Serviced By Drone By Next Year – ¡Do Not Panic! – The Grayzone
AI Drones Used In Gaza Now Surveilling American Cities — Cincinnati Projects 90% of Calls Will Be First Serviced By Drone By Next Year — ¡Do Not Panic!
Immediately after October 7, a little know company shipped over 100 reconnaissance drones to Israel for use in its siege of Gaza. Having been battle-tested on Palestinian civilians, the UAVs are now being used to surveil protesters across the US.
[This article was originally published by ¡Do Not Panic!]
AI-powered quadcopter drones used by the IDF to commit genocide in Gaza are flying over American cities, surveilling protestors and automatically uploading millions of images to an evidence database.
The drones are made by a company called Skydio which in the last few years has gone from relative obscurity to quietly become .. the largest drone manufacturer in the US.
The extent of Skydio drone usage across the US, and the extent to which their usage has grown in just a few years, is extraordinary. The company has contracts with more than 800 law enforcement and security agencies across the country, up from 320 in March last year , and their drones are being launched hundreds of times a day to monitor people in towns and cities across the country.
Skydio has extensive links with Israel. In the first weeks of the genocide the California-based company sent more than one hundred drones to the IDF with promises of more to come. How many more were delivered since that admission is unknown. Skydio has an office in Israel and partners with DefenceSync , a local military drone contractor operating as the middle man between drone manufacturers and the IDF.
Skydio has also raised hundreds of millions of dollars from Israeli-American venture capitalists and from venture capital funds with extensive investments in Israel, including from Marc Andreessen’s firm Andreessen Horowitz, or a16z...
According to my research, almost every large American city has signed a contract with Skydio in the last 18 months, including Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Diego, Cleveland and Jacksonville. Skydio drones were recently used by city police departments to gather information at the ‘No Kings’ protests and were also used by Yale to spy on the anti-genocide protest camp…
In Miami… in Atlanta … Detroit …. Last month ICE bought an X10D Skydio drone, which automatically tracks and pursues a target. US Customs and Border Protection has bought thirty-three of the same drones since July.
The AI system behind Skydio drones is powered by Nvidia chips… thermal imaging cameras and can operate in places where GPS doesn’t work, so-called ‘GPS-denied environments.’ They also reconstruct buildings and other infrastructure in 3D..
The New York police were early adopters of Skydio drones and are particularly enthusiastic users. A spokesman recently told a drone news website that the NYPD launched more than 20,000 drone flights in less than a year…. being launched around the city 55 times per day.
Prior to March this year, FAA rules meant that drones could only be used by US security forces if the operator kept the drone in sight… An FAA waiver issued that month opened the floodgates… Skydio drone buying spree by US police and security forces, with many now employing what is called a ‘Drone As First Responder’ program. Without the need to see the drone… the police are increasingly sending drones before humans to call outs and for broader investigative purposes. Cincinnati for example says that by the end of this year 90% of all call outs will be serviced first by a Skydio drone.
🔗SOURCE ➡️ The Grayzone
Related: 10/25 — Amazon’s Ring to partner with Flock, a network of AI cameras used by ICE, Feds, and Police
8/23 — These Flock cameras are currently being put up in states all across the country.
4/15/24 — Amazon Ring and Police Are Building a Neighborhood Surveillance Network
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READ FULL ARTICLE: This article originally appeared on The Grayzone
