Artificial intelligence is no longer just a tool; it’s an observer. In this episode, we uncover how AI-driven surveillance and content moderation shape public life across governments, campuses, and the platforms we use every day. From China’s massive “A.I.+ Action Plan” to U.S. immigration tools like Mobile Fortify and Palantir’s ImmigrationOS, we explore how algorithms track behavior, flag speech, and generate decisions with real human consequences.
But AI’s reach doesn’t stop at borders. It’s built through global supply chains, deployed on college campuses, and embedded in social media moderation systems that determine what we see, and what gets quietly removed. As these technologies become the invisible infrastructure of daily life, the boundary between “safety” and “censorship” grows increasingly blurred.
Join us as we ask the big questions: Who gets protected, who gets silenced, and who gets to define what counts as “harmful,” “suspicious,” or “un-American”? And what kind of digital future do we want to build?
Produced by: Hope Cross-Jaya and Skye Romo
Edited by: Hope Cross-Jaya
Special thanks to the Investigative Biology Lab @ Cornell University for our recording equipment
Intro and Outro Music from Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio
Sources:
[1] The New York Times. “China – Surveillance State or Way of the Future?” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gSU_Xes3GQ
[2] The New York Times. “How China’s Surveillance Is Growing More Invasive | Visual Investigations.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oo_FM3mjBCY
[3] Vice News. “Should Americans Worry About Mass Surveillance in the U.S.?” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4WikiabOXg
[4] The New York Times. “China’s Security State Sells an A.I. Dream.” https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/04/world/asia/china-police-ai-surveillance.html
[5] PBS / Frontline. “Life Inside China’s Total Surveillance State.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQ5LnY21Hgc
[6] Associated Press. “How U.S. Tech Enabled China’s Surveillance State.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvKp0VsvuNA
[7] Vice News. “Exposing the NSA’s Mass Surveillance of Americans.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYVm62oEyWA
[8] DW News. “AI Supremacy: The Artificial Intelligence Battle Between China, USA, and Europe.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Le122vas9aM
[9] Associated Press. “U.S. Tech Helped Build China’s Surveillance State Despite Warnings.” https://apnews.com/article/chinese-surveillance-silicon-valley-trump-administration-congress-21c5f961b1fd22f9a9e563ebe64e5582
[10] Reuters. “Labor Unions Sue U.S. Over Monitoring Social Media of Visa Holders.” https://www.reuters.com/world/us/labor-unions-sue-us-over-monitoring-social-media-visa-holders-2025-10-16/
[11] American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). “Face Recognition and the ‘Trump Terror’: A Marriage Made in Hell.” https://www.aclu.org/news/privacy-technology/ice-face-recognition
[12] American Immigration Council. “ICE to Use ImmigrationOS by Palantir, a New AI System, to Track Immigrants’ Movements.” https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/blog/ice-immigrationos-palantir-ai-track-immigrants/
[13] U.S. Department of Homeland Security. “Immigration and Customs Enforcement – AI Use Cases.” https://www.dhs.gov/ai/use-case-inventory/ice
[14] Brookings Institution. “How Tech Powers Immigration Enforcement.” https://www.brookings.edu/articles/how-tech-powers-immigration-enforcement/
[15] Brookings Institution. “How AI Can Enable Public Surveillance.” https://www.brookings.edu/articles/how-ai-can-enable-public-surveillance/
[16] Brookings Institution. “Creating Equitable Standards for Federal Use of Facial Recognition Technology.” https://www.brookings.edu/articles/creating-equitable-standards-for-federal-use-of-facial-recognition-technology/
[17] Brookings Institution. “How Technology Is Altering Citizen Protests.” https://www.brookings.edu/articles/how-technology-is-altering-citizen-protests/
Interview taken from:
Vice News. “Should Americans Worry About Mass Surveillance in the U.S.?” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4WikiabOXg
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