The nationwide rollout of facial recognition and AI technology is enabling wide-reaching and detailed surveillance of citizens by Chinese police.
Chinese citizens are already monitored by more than 20 million surveillance cameras as they go about their daily business in public places.
Now, artificial intelligence can identify and "tag" individual cars, cyclists, and pedestrians with distinguishing information that can be stored and searched for descriptions of wanted individuals.
The smart video tool correctly identifies the gender, age, and clothing descriptions of passersby, as well as distinguishing between motorized and non motorized vehicles.
The technology comes amid a growing trend towards using facial recognition as a secure form of ID, including identifying rail and airline passengers, physical and e-commerce customers, and missing persons cases.
Facial recognition technology is already used by ride-sharing and robotic package delivery apps, airport and college dorm security, and social credit schemes, as well against jaywalkers.
Facial recognition can be used in tandem with the "Skynet" technology to track someone in real time, making a powerful "smart" video surveillance tool that can track many of the country's 1.3 billion people, especially in cities.