Over the years, countless experts have warned about privacy and cybersecurity risks with all "smart", wireless, 5G and/or Internet of Things (IoT) devices and technologies.  They warned about privacy invasive and problematic utility "smart" meters – electric, gas, and water – as well.  In fact, approximately 6 months ago, the Biden Administration proposed that companies voluntarily put cybersecurity labels on IoT devices.  Additionally it promised to eventually address cybersecurity issues with increasingly unpopular "smart" meters.  Unfortunately now that everyone's freaking out about Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) – and rightfully so – warnings about 5G, IoT, wireless, and/or "smart" technologies may take a backseat to warnings about A.I.  Of course, it's good that some familiar voices are still around trying to wake people up.

From Ars Technica:

Due to AI, "We are about to enter the era of mass spying," says Bruce Schneier

Schneier: AI will enable a shift from observing actions to interpreting intentions, en masse.

Benj Edwards

In an editorial for Slate published Monday, renowned security researcher Bruce Schneier warned that AI models may enable a new era of mass spying, allowing companies and governments to automate the process of analyzing and summarizing large volumes of conversation data, fundamentally lowering barriers to spying activities that currently require human labor.

Further Reading: Biden proposes new "Bill of Rights" to protect Americans from AI harms

In the piece, Schneier notes that the existing landscape of electronic surveillance has already transformed the modern era, becoming the business model of the Internet, where our digital footprints are constantly tracked and analyzed for commercial reasons. Spying, by contrast, can take that kind of economically inspired monitoring to a completely new level:

"Spying and surveillance are different but related things," Schneier writes. "If I hired a private detective to spy on you, that detective could hide a bug in your home or car, tap your phone, and listen to what you said. At the end, I would get a report of all the conversations you had and the contents of those conversations. If I hired that same private detective to put you under surveillance, I would get a different report: where you went, whom you talked to, what you purchased, what you did."