China jaywalkers publicly shamed, faces flashed on screens

Artificial intelligence's increasingly ominous presence is on China's streets, capturing jaywalkers' faces and shaming them for all to see.

In a recent livestream from Shanghai, China, Twitch streamer Jake’n’Bake found devices at pedestrian crossings, which captured and flashed jaywalkers’ faces, seemingly to humiliate them for their offences.

There were "live" cameras on these devices that reminded pedestrians to obey traffic laws.

They apparently captured images of pedestrians who crossed when the red light was on. Their faces would then be shown on a big screen with the caption “person suspected of violating the law” in Chinese.

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But unbeknownst to many, the system has actually been used in China since 2017, according to the Daily Mail.

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It was subsequently implemented in more areas of the country from late 2019.

According to Gaoxin Public Security Bureau on Weibo, this is an initiative by the authorities to gather evidence and clamp down on jaywalking.

Cameras installed at traffic lights would record videos of jaywalkers. The smart system would then snap images of the offenders at three different moments as they jaywalked, serving proof that they had violated traffic laws.

It also collects information on the offenders’ facial features and compares them against a biometric database to identify them.

It would then flash the offenders’ faces on a big screen, warning them against jaywalking through an audio system.

It is unclear if anyone actually received any charges for their traffic violations.

In the comments section of the Tikok video, users had mixed rections.

Some approved of the system as a solution to jaywalking. A handful of them even expressed their desire for such devices in their own countries.

Some were critical, saying how “controlling” it was to monitor people. Others said it reminded them of dystopian novels and films like "1984", "Black Mirror" and "The Orville".