Santa Clara County employees want guardrails on the use of artificial intelligence as the growing technology sparks displacement fears. The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday could move forward with a comprehensive study on how AI is used across its various departments, including the public hospital system, which is California’s second largest. County leaders will consider...
San Jose mayor behind in polls but ahead on prediction markets
Traditional polling puts San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan toward the back of the pack in the race for California governor. But online gambling markets are betting bigger on his success. While polls by Emerson College, UC Berkeley and the Public Policy Institute of California have all put Mahan under 5% favorability in the race, the...
UPDATE: San Jose restricts use of license plate readers
San Jose is tightening controls over its automated license plate reader program, as the city faces mounting public pressure over surveillance concerns and a lawsuit. The City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to adopt a range of new safeguards for San Jose’s network of 474 cameras, including limits on where the devices may be installed and...
Out-of-state police access Silicon Valley license plate readers
The company behind a network of automated license plate reading cameras is losing its public safety contracts across Silicon Valley. The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors is the most recent slate of officials to join Los Altos Hills and Mountain View in severing ties with Flock Safety over concerns the company has enabled unlawful...
San Jose mayor’s social media use faces criticism
Just weeks after announcing his run for governor, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan launched two new social media accounts on X and Instagram, each one designated as a city-backed account for official messaging. The move in February came amid City Hall grumbles about the mayor’s longstanding practice of using individual social media accounts for both...
Bernie Sanders warns about AI ‘tsunami’ at Stanford town hall
Workers, students and researchers in Silicon Valley are no strangers to the idea that artificial intelligence may be coming for their jobs. Many are under the impression that it’s not a matter of if, but when. But for Sen. Bernie Sanders, a longtime critic of the billionaire class, the new technology has ramifications that go...
San Jose slow to tell workers about data breach
San Jose administrators have disclosed that private information for current and former city employees may have been compromised, following a data breach last month. The incident occurred on Jan. 9 when a “workforce member” lost a USB drive that may have contained Social Security numbers, according to a letter city officials sent to people whose...
Santa Clara County may ditch camera vendor amid privacy issues
Cities across Silicon Valley may be on the cusp of cutting ties with a surveillance company linked to local police departments’ cooperation with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Santa Clara County officials this week signaled growing distrust with Flock Safety, a company that sells license plate reading cameras to cities across California, over concerns the...
San Jose adds AI tools to its disaster tactics
San Jose faces a wide array of disaster risks — everything from wildfires to floods and mass shootings — each of which poses its own difficult questions for emergency management officials tasked with leading the city’s evacuation efforts. But those emergency planners will soon get a high-tech assist in these life-or-death calls from a cutting-edge,...
San Jose approves expanded Taser, body cam contract for police
For years, police technology firm Axon Enterprises has been dogged by accusations that it’s attempting to unfairly corner the market on Tasers and body-worn cameras for law enforcement. Despite some hand wringing, the San Jose City Council voted unanimously Tuesday, with Vice Mayor Pam Foley absent, to approve a new, expanded contract with the firm to...