An artificial intelligence program that's sold to police departments is being used to infiltrate and spy on college protest groups with "undercover" bots, reported Wired on Thursday.
"Massive Blue, the New York–based company that is selling police departments the technology, calls its product Overwatch and markets it as an 'AI-powered force multiplier for public safety' that 'deploys lifelike virtual agents, which infiltrate and engage criminal networks across various channels,'" reported Emanuel Maiberg and Jason Koebler.
"According to a presentation obtained by 404 Media, Massive Blue is offering cops these virtual personas that can be deployed across the internet with the express purpose of interacting with suspects over text messages and social media."
In at least some cases, per the report, these bots are being used to surveil college protests — or at least, they are being set up so that police can use them for this purpose.
The report obtained a presentation from Massive Blue on some of their AI undercover characters, which "include a 'radicalized AI' 'protest persona,' which poses as a 36-year-old divorced woman who is lonely, has no children, is interested in baking, activism, and 'body positivity.'
Another AI persona in the presentation is described as a '‘Honeypot’ AI Persona.' Her backstory says she’s a 25-year-old from Dearborn, Michigan, whose parents emigrated from Yemen and who speaks the Sanaani dialect of Arabic. The presentation also says she uses various social media apps, that she’s on Telegram and Signal, and that she has U.S. and international SMS capabilities."
Several other characters are in the mix, the report continued, including a "child trafficking AI persona," an “AI pimp persona,” “college protestor,” “external recruiter for protests,” “escorts,” and “juveniles.”
The Trump administration has made targeting international students who participated in anti-Israel protests, which were a political flashpoint during the 2024 presidential election, one of his key priorities.
Several of them, like former Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil, have been snatched summarily and transported across the country to faraway detention centers isolated from their families. Another Columbia activist, Mohsen Mahdawi, was busted by ICE agents in Vermont during what he thought was an interview for his own citizenship.