Google’s AI Told People Flock Cameras Are Stuffed With Gold. They Aren’t

The era of mass surveillance is well and truly upon us, due in part to the hugely controversial cameras from Flock Safety. As these cameras, which incorporate AI-powered license plate readers, become more common, vandals are increasingly targeting them, although this may not be simply for privacy reasons.

As Futurism reported, Google’s Gemini AI Overviews feature has been telling people that Flock cameras are stuffed with gold and copper. The cameras do contain both, but only in trace amounts, the same as any other piece of consumer electronics you can buy off a shelf.

Read: Florida Sheriff Pulls County’s Flock Cameras Over One Detective

Until recently, if you were to search ‘how much gold does a Flock camera have’ on Google, the AI result would confidently declare that each camera “contains about 1 to 5 grams of gold used in its internal circuit boards and wiring.” If this were true, it’d mean each camera has between $140 and up to $700 of gold in it.

What’s more, the AI Overview also declared the cameras can have two to 23 pounds of copper in them. As noted by Futurism, that makes absolutely no sense as the cameras weigh just three pounds.  

Where Did AI Get This Info From?

The jokes about Flock cameras being loaded with gold and copper started in online privacy communities, where people half-seriously floated the precious metals as one more reason to tear the cameras down. Google’s AI apparently took the bait, citing a random Substack account and an obviously fake AI-generated Instagram post that described how much gold and copper the cameras supposedly contain.

This could be an important reminder of just how vigilant you need to be when using AI tools for information and research. While they can be accurate, they can often spit out inaccurate information, citing shoddy sources without actually verifying any sources.