Remove AI-Powered Security Cameras at MIT NOW!
The Issue
Dear MIT Community,
The more that they’ll see, the less we’ll wander free.
It was recently announced that MIT is spending three million dollars to install AI-powered security cameras throughout campus. These cameras are capable of "collecting real-time face and object classification data." This means that your names and your faces will be sent to AI surveillance firms.
The most important thing to realize is that these AI cameras are merely the first step in a big project to expand surveillance at MIT.
Who knew that MIT could slash funding for libraries and then turn around and pour millions of dollars towards creating a surveillance state on campus?
More can be read here: https://thetech.com/2026/04/16/ai-surveillance-cameras
The values of MIT are as follows: "Excellence and Curiosity", "Openness and Respect", and "Belonging and Community." However, installing AI cameras – especially in our current sociopolitical climate – utterly violates all three of these values.
Openness and Respect. MIT says that it "cherishes free expression, debate, and dialogue in pursuit of truth." Time and time again, however, MIT has punished those who protest and fight for the causes they believe in. Installing AI cameras is nothing more than just another tool to be used by the Institute to silence its students. After all, who can really discuss and think freely when whatever they say can be used against them?
Moreover, a campus that "strives to be transparent and worthy of each other’s trust" cannot even achieve that when the next phases of this mass surveillance project has been withheld from the public's scrutiny. These AI cameras are merely the first part of this project, and MIT isn't being very transparent with its next steps.
Furthermore, IS&T policies forbid using surveillance footage for disciplinary matters, yet the MIT Police has a known history of prosecuting students using it. Why would we give them our trust and strengthen their abilities in violating the campus's own policies?
Belonging and Community. MIT prides itself on being a place where "people from a diverse range of backgrounds can grow." But studies have shown that facial recognition technology has a strong bias against people of color. Especially in an administration trigger-happy with discrimination and deportation against disadvantaged demographics, people from a diverse range of backgrounds cannot grow.
Furthermore, MIT says that it "strives to make our community a humane and welcoming place." But who calls sending the names and faces of thousands of students to faceless companies without their consent humane?
If anything, being constantly watched reduces our feeling of safety -- that feeling of safety is the foundation for a community to thrive and grow. Without it, "attending to our own and each other’s wellbeing" becomes impossible at MIT.
Excellence and Curiosity. MIT prides itself on "originality, ingenuity, honesty, and boldness." But what university prides itself on "seeking new knowledge" when our libraries are being shut down to fund AI cameras?
Due to recent budget cuts, MIT shrunk its own research enterprise by 10%. Positions in the school's library system, the Broad Institute, and MIT Health were cut as well.
It's important to realize that this is merely the first step in MIT's secretive mass surveillance project. Millions of dollars are about to be spent on this, and if allowed it encourages further investment. What other sacrifices in the sciences, art, and health can we see made by MIT in the name of surveillance?
How can we pride ourselves to be the “#1 university in the world” while doing this?
The only thing we can take pride in at the moment is MIT being the "#1 most surveilled university in the world."
To my beloved Massachusetts Institute of Technology: do the right thing!
Will you listen to us and remove these AI cameras, or will you relent to the growing AI surveillance state in this nation and betray your students' trust?
We the students who pay huge sums of money to the great Institute DO NOT CONSENT to having our dollars be poured into converting the great Institute into a great Surveillance State. I'm not paying for this, and neither should the rest of us. We the students want change.
316
The Issue
Dear MIT Community,
The more that they’ll see, the less we’ll wander free.
It was recently announced that MIT is spending three million dollars to install AI-powered security cameras throughout campus. These cameras are capable of "collecting real-time face and object classification data." This means that your names and your faces will be sent to AI surveillance firms.
The most important thing to realize is that these AI cameras are merely the first step in a big project to expand surveillance at MIT.
Who knew that MIT could slash funding for libraries and then turn around and pour millions of dollars towards creating a surveillance state on campus?
More can be read here: https://thetech.com/2026/04/16/ai-surveillance-cameras
The values of MIT are as follows: "Excellence and Curiosity", "Openness and Respect", and "Belonging and Community." However, installing AI cameras – especially in our current sociopolitical climate – utterly violates all three of these values.
Openness and Respect. MIT says that it "cherishes free expression, debate, and dialogue in pursuit of truth." Time and time again, however, MIT has punished those who protest and fight for the causes they believe in. Installing AI cameras is nothing more than just another tool to be used by the Institute to silence its students. After all, who can really discuss and think freely when whatever they say can be used against them?
Moreover, a campus that "strives to be transparent and worthy of each other’s trust" cannot even achieve that when the next phases of this mass surveillance project has been withheld from the public's scrutiny. These AI cameras are merely the first part of this project, and MIT isn't being very transparent with its next steps.
Furthermore, IS&T policies forbid using surveillance footage for disciplinary matters, yet the MIT Police has a known history of prosecuting students using it. Why would we give them our trust and strengthen their abilities in violating the campus's own policies?
Belonging and Community. MIT prides itself on being a place where "people from a diverse range of backgrounds can grow." But studies have shown that facial recognition technology has a strong bias against people of color. Especially in an administration trigger-happy with discrimination and deportation against disadvantaged demographics, people from a diverse range of backgrounds cannot grow.
Furthermore, MIT says that it "strives to make our community a humane and welcoming place." But who calls sending the names and faces of thousands of students to faceless companies without their consent humane?
If anything, being constantly watched reduces our feeling of safety -- that feeling of safety is the foundation for a community to thrive and grow. Without it, "attending to our own and each other’s wellbeing" becomes impossible at MIT.
Excellence and Curiosity. MIT prides itself on "originality, ingenuity, honesty, and boldness." But what university prides itself on "seeking new knowledge" when our libraries are being shut down to fund AI cameras?
Due to recent budget cuts, MIT shrunk its own research enterprise by 10%. Positions in the school's library system, the Broad Institute, and MIT Health were cut as well.
It's important to realize that this is merely the first step in MIT's secretive mass surveillance project. Millions of dollars are about to be spent on this, and if allowed it encourages further investment. What other sacrifices in the sciences, art, and health can we see made by MIT in the name of surveillance?
How can we pride ourselves to be the “#1 university in the world” while doing this?
The only thing we can take pride in at the moment is MIT being the "#1 most surveilled university in the world."
To my beloved Massachusetts Institute of Technology: do the right thing!
Will you listen to us and remove these AI cameras, or will you relent to the growing AI surveillance state in this nation and betray your students' trust?
We the students who pay huge sums of money to the great Institute DO NOT CONSENT to having our dollars be poured into converting the great Institute into a great Surveillance State. I'm not paying for this, and neither should the rest of us. We the students want change.
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Petition created on July 29, 2026