This US city is using AI to detect homeless camps. Will others follow suit?

Nelly cleans her belongings at an encampment of homeless people near the Nimitz Freeway in Oakland after the city issued an order to remove and clean up the area where between 30 to 40 people live in cars, RVS, tents, and other makeshift structures in Oakland, California, US, on April 2, 2024. — Reuters

Across the US, cities have begun experimenting with artificial intelligence to map potholes, reduce traffic and fight wildfires. In San Jose, officials are now harnessing the rapidly evolving technology with another goal in mind: detecting homeless encampments.

Three times since December, a white city-owned Toyota sedan affixed with a half-dozen small cameras has cruised through South San Jose to collect footage of parked cars and RVs. The images were then fed into different AI systems developed by four private companies to determine whether people were living inside the vehicles.