France has passed a controversial bill to trial AI-based surveillance cameras at the 2024 Olympic Games, despite the opposition of human rights activists.
The bill, focused on ensuring security at the Games, included an article which allowed the use of AI-powered camera systems to spot suspicious behaviour in real-time to detect "events likely to pose or reveal a risk" of "terrorist acts or serious breaches of security".
However, the bill has been opposed by politicians and activists. Last week, around 40 mostly left-leaning members of the European Parliament said the plan "creates a surveillance precedent never before seen in Europe", according to reports by Le Monde.
Even before the debates started, members of parliament had already filed 770 amendments to the bill, many aimed at Article Seven, which covers video recorded by existing surveillance systems or new ones to be "processed by algorithms".
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