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submitted 2 months ago by thesdev@feddit.org to c/fuck_ai@lemmy.world

Watched the new Spiderman movie today and something that made me think was him tapping into real time face recognition surveillance cameras around the city to track his enemies real time, which I thought was strange to say the least in the light of the recent controversies around Flock cameras in the US. Is there something going on behind the scenes to plant the idea that these make for safer cities, or am I being paranoid and the movie is just trying to be cool by being hi-tech?

The other thing that caught my attention was him talking to his computer with natural language. Now this one isn't exactly new for superhero movies, I remember Jarvis and Ironman, but regardless it came across as the sort of techbro dream scenario that the current day AI assistans are trying to realize, which is not an angle I'd consider at the time that I was watching the original Ironman.

I should probably stop overthinking these things and just try enjoying the movie instead, but I was curious to hear what others think about this.

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[-] YoFrodo@lemmy.world 31 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Advertising? no.

Its the same as Christian Bale's Batman where he uses his surveillance tech to find the Joker.

Both instances are "a hero uses scary tech to try to help, but what does this mean for their morality?"

In Batman, Morgan Freeman's character quits because he feels Bruce is going too far.

In the new Spider-Man film there isnt anyone directly opposing Spider-Mans face recognition hack but the whole film frames Peter's misuse of tech, which is primarily highlighted during a conversation Peter has with Bruce Banner. It seems clear to me that this film is setting up a big conflict where Peter's tech will be used for significant harm.

So everyone saying that Spider-Man is now promoting Flock/Palantir/Surveillance seems to have quite literally missed the plot.

[-] _wizard@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

He uses sonar.. like a submarine. That's kinds a different right?

[-] Azrael@feddit.org 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Well, I'll have to look up the specific news article again... but afair there's a company currently trying to do what Batman did in "Dark Knight".

Let me get back to you with an Edit if I can find it.

Edit: slightly misremembered, wasn't a tech company, it was a study by the Carnegie Mellon University of Pittsburgh.

https://dev.to/jae_jeong_56b53bffb105974/using-wifi-as-sonar-how-ai-can-see-through-signals-25o3

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this post was submitted on 14 Aug 2026
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