As Americans, we have grown so reliant on AI in our daily lives. Summarizing lectures, planning vacations even writing emails to our bosses. Let’s be honest, we all are guilty of overusing it for everyday tasks which are accomplishable within minutes, but we just lack the motivation to do it for ourselves. While its convenience is incredibly luring, we’ve traded our creativity and critical thinking, key aspects that make us human to algorithmic artificial robots. As the popularity of AI rises, the number of concerns and issues surrounding it is likewise rapidly growing. While there are several beneficial aspects of using AI daily, such as translating phrases in another language more accurately or finding articles on a research paper you may be working on, we as a society have become too dependent on AI, and we are so ignorant of its downsides.
This form of technology is incredibly invasive, using our data and cookies to gain personal insights on us, and using tools that store information that can even be weaponized by the government. The environmental damage and job displacement caused by automation are hardly paid attention to. And for years, these issues have maintained their persistence, but we’ve largely ignored AI’s consequences on our world since it didn’t target us specifically. Despite these red flags, we gave little to no restrictions on AI’s evolution until now.
While the rest of the nation continues to stall, Maryland is confronting this escalating conflict surrounding AI. Maryland has become the first state to pass significant legislation towards the regulation of AI. In late 2024, they passed two senate bills SB182 and HB338, these two bills, alone are the most innovative and comprehension laws surrounding the invasiveness of AI inthe whole nation. These are the first two laws to directly regulate AI systems, and they dont just focus on limiting facial recognition , they are trying to spread awareness on the abuse and mis-use of AI in our society.
Though this bill explicitly addresses facial recognition technology, it also brings to light how out of hand AI has become, especially to everyday civilians. The bill prohibits the use of facial recognition by not only corporations but also government authorities and the police. Maryland acknowledges that AI is advancing heavily however, its facial recognition for people convicted of crimes has a staggering amount of false matches, especially towards minorities. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) advocates for how AI has been taken advantage of, especially in the hands of police. Even prior to this law being formed sent a letter was sent addressing the corruption of facial recognition in the judicial system.
The letter also mentions a topic which isn’t looked at greatly, how law enforcement uses databases such as Clearview AI to store face data without consent from civilians, who, regardless of being innocent or guilty, have no idea that they are being surveillance. This is such a major issue because it undermines fundamental rights to our privacy. It’s unconstitutional to monitor civilians in activities such as peaceful protesting or riding the subway, where there is no probable cause for why we would need our facial data to be collected. The storage of facial data can also be used to intimidate activists and politicians due to the ongoing threat that they may be scanned or threatened. This causes a decrease in civic engagement, the Harvard Gazette concluded, talking about the lack of boundaries this form of technology has, which can worsen our civil liberties and public life.
These bills are truly groundbreaking because of their acknowledgment of AI’s much more pessimistic potential. Maryland’s government is truly displaying transparency and a government that’s striving for ethical responsibility for its people, which is truly what we need in this day and age. If AI continues to evolve, unrestricting it slowly blurs the lines between America, a free and democratic society and a near dystopian future.
Written by Caroline Zera
