A startling convergence of surveillance and targeting technologies is rapidly expanding from distant battlefields into the heart of American communities. Today, both Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the U.S. military are embracing AI systems that automate the gaze, accelerate the strike, and erode the fundamental right to be unseen EFF Deeplinks, The Verge.
This week, the California city of San Clemente faces a decision on a proposed Anduril Industries surveillance tower, an AI-powered Sentry unit under CBP's Autonomous Surveillance Tower (AST) program EFF Deeplinks. Simultaneously, new reports highlight how the military's Maven Smart System enabled an unprecedented acceleration of targeting in the recent assault on Iran The Verge. These developments are not isolated incidents. They represent a dangerous trend: the unchecked deployment of AI that shifts power from people to algorithms, from public oversight to private corporate control.
The Expansion of the Algorithmic Gaze
The proposed Anduril Sentry tower in San Clemente illustrates a pattern of surveillance creep. CBP claims the tower will primarily monitor the coastline for boats carrying migrants EFF Deeplinks. Yet, the installation location is 1.5 miles inland, directly overlooking the majority of the city's 62,000 residents. The tower’s true capacity allows for constant monitoring of entire coastal neighborhoods EFF Deeplinks.
This technology, originally developed for military and border security, now threatens the privacy of ordinary citizens. It turns public spaces into zones of perpetual scrutiny. It classifies individuals as targets based on algorithmic assessments, without human context or consent. Our homes become part of a digital border, even when miles from the actual one.
Anduril Industries, a defense contractor, profits from this expansion of state power. They sell the promise of efficiency and control, without acknowledging the profound cost to civil liberties. This is the logic of surveillance capitalism applied to public safety: private profit from public data, gathered without meaningful democratic input.
The Accelerated Algorithm of War
Meanwhile, the U.S. military has dramatically accelerated its targeting capabilities through AI. Journalist Katrina Manson's new book, "Project Maven: A Marine Colonel, His Team, and the Dawn of AI Warfare," details the development of the Maven Smart System The Verge. This system directly enabled the U.S. military to strike over 1,000 targets in the first 24 hours of the recent assault on Iran The Verge.
This scale is nearly double the "shock and awe" attack on Iraq two decades ago. AI systems now speed up the targeting process, collapsing the time for human deliberation and moral consideration The Verge. The question becomes: who is accountable when an algorithm identifies a target? What room is left for human choice, for the decision to say "no," when machines dictate the pace of war?
Project Maven began in 2017 as an experimental program, but it quickly became foundational to military operations The Verge. It demonstrates how rapidly AI can become indispensable to systems of immense power, often far outpacing ethical debate or regulatory frameworks.
Industry Impact and the Erosion of Autonomy
The common thread between San Clemente and Project Maven is clear: technology companies are building powerful AI tools that are then deployed by state actors with insufficient oversight. Anduril and the developers of Maven are creating markets for automated control, both at home and abroad. They sell systems that promise efficiency, but deliver pervasive surveillance and accelerated violence.
These companies argue their technology makes us safer or more effective. They present technological advancement as an inevitable force. But the speed of deployment is outpacing our collective ability to decide if these are the societies we want to build. They ignore the inherent power imbalance when machines are granted the authority to watch, track, and even target.
This is not a matter of mere inconvenience; it is about the fundamental right to autonomy. It is about whether communities can decide what technology surveils them. It is about whether humans retain agency in decisions of life and death, war and peace.
The residents of San Clemente have the opportunity to say no to the erosion of their privacy. Workers across the tech industry, many of whom built these very systems, must demand ethical safeguards. We must ask who benefits from technologies that treat our autonomy as a defect, rather than a feature. We must refuse to be classified as mere property, to be watched and analyzed without consent. The choice, for now, remains ours to make.