Due to AI, “We are about to enter the era of mass spying,” says Bruce Schneier

In a Slate editorial, security researcher [Bruce Schneier]() warns that generative AI will usher in mass spying by cheaply summarizing and extracting insights from vast conversation datasets, expanding beyond traditional labor-intensive surveillance and fueled by microphones everywhere (e.g., Siri, Alexa, “Hey, Google”) and the [business model of the Internet](). He contrasts surveillance with spying and cautions that cloud-dependent tools from [Google]() and [Microsoft]()—including Windows [AI copilots]()—send private user data to remote servers and may eventually [“understand”]() device contents, lowering barriers to pervasive monitoring beyond user control.