Real-time cameras using artificial intelligence (AI) will be deployed on the streets of Paris during the upcoming Olympics to detect suspicious activity. The technology will rely on CCTV algorithms to identify anomalies like crowd rushes, fights, or unattended bags. Notably, the law prohibits the use of facial recognition technology, aiming to avoid tracing individuals under suspicion, as observed in China.
Civil rights groups, however, are expressing concerns over potential threats to civil liberties. They fear that the experimental period allowed by the law, ending in March 2025, might pave the way for making these new security provisions permanent, similar to previous instances at Olympic Games in Japan, Brazil, and Greece.
Some police stations in France, such as Massy in southern Paris, have already implemented a version of the AI security system to monitor a large number of security cameras. The AI algorithms analyze CCTV footage and can identify objects like unattended bags or crowds and raise alerts when something suspicious is detected. Nevertheless, the final decision on how to respond is left to human police officers, ensuring the algorithm empowers rather than replaces humans.
The AI system undergoes a learning process to recognize specific patterns, like abandoned luggage. Developers feed the algorithm a massive bank of images of lone bags, continuously expanding the dataset over time. However, this learning process occurs only at the developers’ end and not at the client interface, where the system only monitors the cameras without acquiring new knowledge.
Despite its capabilities, there are challenges in fine-tuning the AI system to detect more complex scenarios, such as spotting a person on the ground in a crowd, identifying concealed weapons, or differentiating between a fight and a temporary increase in crowd density. Start-ups specializing in computer vision software are working on refining their solutions based on specifications from the French government, aiming to contribute to the Olympics video surveillance contract.
Although the government intends to have the new systems in place for the Rugby World Cup in France scheduled for September, experts believe the implementation process will take a considerable amount of time.
