OpenAI is becoming a surveillance company - by Gary Marcus

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OpenAI is becoming a surveillance company<br>It’s not even really trying to hide it

Gary Marcus<br>Aug 20, 2026

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Just over two years ago something terrifying snapped into place:

I tried repeatedly to warn people:

Gary Marcus@GaryMarcus

⚠️ Microsoft and OpenAI have only one play to make GenAI profitable, and this is it: all out 24x7 surveillance. They are already starting to try to soften you up for it.

Virtually every warning that I have given for the last several years has come true.

Please don’t ignore

Gary Marcus @GaryMarcus

1984 is coming soon! So awesome! Surveillance nation!

1:26 AM · Nov 1, 2024 · 58.3K Views

24 Replies · 124 Reposts · 420 Likes

And I pointed out the irony inherent in the name:

Gary Marcus@GaryMarcus

If, as seems plausible, OpenAI transforms into a surveillance company it will be the ultimate irony.

Gary Marcus @GaryMarcus

⚠️ Something terrifying just snapped in place:<br>• Sam Altman has acknowledged wanting to train on everyone's personal documents (Word files, email etc)<br>• ChatGPT has gathered unprecedented amounts of personal data<br>• Sam founded WorldCoin, known for their eye-scanning orb

3:31 PM · Aug 7, 2024 · 16.2K Views

22 Replies · 32 Reposts · 148 Likes

And now here we are. They are reportedly building devices for 24x7 monitoring, no doubt uploading everything you say to the cloud for AI analysis; they refused (via mealy mouth legalese) to opt out of doing surveillance for the US government of US citizens and we have stuff like this:

ChatGPT@ChatGPT

Everyday conversations just got easier with the new Apple Messages plugin.

Search messages, catch up on conversations, draft and send replies—all with ChatGPT on your Mac.

Now available in ChatGPT Work and Codex on desktop.

6:01 PM · Aug 20, 2026 · 194K Views

135 Replies · 109 Reposts · 2.21K Likes

This certainly raises privacy concerns.

As @hedgiemarkets put it on X:

I STRONGLY recommend you not consent. I certainly won’t.

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Discussion about this post<br>CommentsRestacks

Steve Robbins<br>11hEdited

Liked by Gary Marcus

Mass, detailed surveillance seems the only thing that makes sense of the massive Datacenters buildout. This together with the curiously coordinated massive rollout of flock cameras the "3-lock" system, tokenization of all assets, CBDC-based, for control in real time whatever you could buy.

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A G<br>9h

Shoshana Zuboff was prescient in defining this course in Surveillance Capitalism.

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