If you weren’t on campus this summer, then something you didn’t see – perhaps by design – was the installation of hundreds of small eyeball-shaped surveillance cameras. Building 1 alone now has 6-7 cameras per floor and The Tech has reported on the locations of more than 500 others. Cameras point towards faculty members’ offices and bathroom entrances. Some are so close to faculty offices that their microphones could reasonably be expected to pick up and record what is said in those rooms. It turns out that MIT is exploring adding AI capabilities provided by Ambient.ai. This could make searching for any particular person a snap. You could just type in: “Show me all footage of the curly-haired chemistry colleague going to the bathroom.” In the May 2026 Institute Faculty Meeting, the MIT administration acknowledged that they have already tested AI capacities on our campus without our knowledge or consent.

Some of our colleagues don’t like these new surveillance cameras. They say they are intrusive. They say they don’t want their movements, conversations, and bathroom rhythms monitored. They say that campus culture has become increasingly repressive, stifling speech and chilling protest. They say that the mere possibility of AI tracking sets into motion the Panopticon effect, whereby constant yet unverifiable surveillance leads us to anxiously alter our own behavior because someone could be tracking us at any moment. They say that more surveillance doesn’t equal more safety. They say that governments with a penchant for authoritarianism could enlist the information for broad-based repression. They say that facial detection and recognition systems have well-documented gender and racial biases. They say that it’s a waste of money.

We do not agree with these annoying colleagues who are causing trouble for our benevolent Big Brother Tech administrators! For this reason, we are writing to let the community know about our new arts initiative: The Initiative to Beautify the AI-capable Surveillance Benevolently Installed by our Administrator Overseers and the MIT Corporation In Collaboration with Big Brother Tech Companies. For a handy acronym, you can refer to our project as the IBAISBIAOMITCORPICBBTC initiative. The goal of the IBAISBIAOMITCORPICBBTC initiative is to beautify every single AI-capable camera on our campus as an indicator of our support and love for the campus surveillance now bestowed upon us from up high. To beautify the cameras, we are sticking luxurious gems of many colors on each and every camera. You can see a beautified AI-capable surveillance camera in the photo below. The gems are removable in case someone doesn’t like them, but we frankly cannot imagine who might dispute the aesthetic appeal of bedazzled surveillance cameras. The IBAISBIAOMITCORPICBBTC initiative started in August 2026 and will continue for as long as there are naked, AI-capable surveillance cameras waiting for bedazzlement.