Ok the comments are full of all the predictable responses: this will kill people, this will only be used on answering calls from poor districts, rich people get good stuff, etc.

Great, now that you've gotten your political wiggles out WHAT'S YOUR SOLUTION?
Is it actually better that someone waits on HOLD with a 911 call so they can speak exclusively with a human?

Because "just hire more people" doesn't work.
Setting aside the cost, there's a 20-50% vacancy rate in 911 dispatch positions nationwide, 30% first year turnover due to burnout, with a laborious onhire process with extensive background checks and reviews for every staff member.

"Just pay more and more people will apply" answer doesn't scale infinitely. Cities don't have infinite money and one you've paid teachers more and garbage men more and and health care workers more and janitors more ...eventually you run out of money.

So no, I don't disagree that an ai front end isn't ideal but when less than half (some data shows 25%) the calls are true, time sensitive emergencies maybe this will help the real calls get a real human more promptly.

Interesting, but perhaps 900+ word story could better be served behind the link, instead of being copied word for word as the "summary"?

I don't know about the tax thing, but the budget deficit since October, 2025 is 1.37 trillion USD. For the previous fiscal year, it was $1.34 trillion. Total national debt for the past 100 years. "The U.S. debt to GDP ratio surpassed 100% in 2013 when both debt and GDP were approximately 16.7 trillion."

Here's the problem ... or one of the problems ... among the problems: (from March, 2025) "fully 'made in America' solar would require U.S. polysilicon. The nation has only two operational polysilicon sites today, but President Donald Trump’s willingness to use tariffs, plus anticipated rising demand for PV, could make polysilicon production an attractive proposition." [Emphasis added.]

"SEIA estimates the technically challenging development of polysilicon production sites requires around five years. Marius Mordal Bakke, vice president for solar research at Norwegian consultant Rystad Energy, said REC Silicon’s Moses Lake fab in Washington state took two years and around $150 million to restart after closing in 2019. It is ceasing production again after struggling to meet the purity requirements of the latest silicon cell technologies." [Doesn't that mean there's only one operational polysilicon site today?]

Okay, so tariffs might result in more US production -- in five years. If the US plants can "meet the purity requirements". In the meantime, higher prices and shortages of needed raw materials.

Are people okay with it? And do you really see no difference between paying more money to support higher wages for workers as opposed to paying higher taxes to the government? (Not to mention the difference between higher wages for workers and higher salaries for executives or using corporate funds for stock buy-backs.)

It's a well-known fact that Disney is the fourth-largest producer of lithium in the world, despite ongoing labor disputes over whether their workers are "Dwarfs" or "Dwarves".

Like this: "Today, there are two main ways to pull lithium from the ground. Until recently, most lithium mining occurred in Chile, where lithium is extracted from brines: salty liquid found at the Earth’s surface or underground. To extract lithium, that liquid is pumped from the earth and then placed in pools where the water can evaporate, leaving behind lithium and other elements.

"Elsewhere, lithium mining looks more traditional. In 2017, Australia overtook Chile as the dominant lithium producer. Companies there blast a lithium-rich mineral called spodumene out of open pits. Today, Australia produces roughly a third of the globe’s supplies. More than 80 percent of that rock then travels to China, where it’s further processed to yield lithium."

And that brine method has caused a lot of harm in Chile: "... lithium mining requires a lot of water. To extract one ton of lithium requires about 500,000 liters of water, and can result in the poisoning of reservoirs and related health problems."

The production of one ton of lithium requires approximately 2.2 million liters of water, diverting scarce water resources away from local agriculture and indigenous communities. The extraction process also leads to soil degradation, making it unsuitable for vegetation and disrupting local ecosystems." [So somewhere between 500,000 and 2.2 million liters ...]

"In arid regions like the Lithium Triangle in South America - encompassing parts of Bolivia, Argentina, and Chile - lithium extraction consumes vast amounts of water. In Chile's Salar de Atacama, mining operations consume around 21 million liters of water per day and use around 65% of the region’s water, leading to severe water shortages."

"The cost of green energy: lithium mining’s impact on nature and people": "The indigenous people of South America are negatively impacted by lithium mining, and the practice has driven hundreds off the land that they once called home. Mining giants in the region originally pledged to consult indigenous communities over lithium mining on their land to make sure it was environmentally sound. However, these corporations have refused to give indigenes a voice in how they are operated. Community leaders have rightfully demanded profits be channelled their way. The indigenous community in the Chilean Atacama desert has two mining companies situated there. The head of the environmental unit of the Atacama Indigenous Council, Francis Mandoca, has said that the lithium mines are branded “sustainable” energy but they are not, as they ruin one zone to satisfy another. The community feels frustrated and concerned because the ponds they used to use have been contaminated with harmful chemicals and are now unusable."

What the Hell does "YOB" mean? I've seen it several times now and have no idea what it stands for, and the LLMs are confused and making up wrong answers.

Dismissing information based on the name of the Web site is some kind of logical fallacy, though I don't know what formal name it might go by. The Web site is called "Less Wrong", it's rather well-known, and it was founded by Eliezer Yudkowsky, a rather famous and well-regarded AI researcher who also wrote the linked article. In other words, it *IS* a "reliable source".

Executive Summary: Concerning the link, you don't know what you're talking about.

In this case, I suspect you have William of Ockham confused with Thomas Aquinas.

And if you took the trouble to actually read (and understand) the Yudkowsky essay, you'd find that he explains why the God hypothesis is not in fact simplest, based on a discussion of ways of measuring complexity.

Your privilege is showing here. Some people don't have those choices. Some people live in neighborhoods where there's gang activity, or high-crime areas. You want to transplant them? And their friends and relatives? Some people have been subjected to stop-and-frisk. Sometimes police question groups of young people hanging around a high school, on the basis that they're probably up to something. Some people, believe it or not, actually live with or in proximity to, ex-cons or parolees.

Are they, though? I really like numbers and evidence. Is there evidence that license-plate readers are effective in catching "criminals"? What kinds of criminals? And how effective? What are the numbers? Is spending money on license-plate readers more effective than spending money elsewhere? What are the overall accuracy rates, including human error and misunderstandings?

"An Evaluation of a Major Expansion in Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR) Technology (Published online: 06 Mar 2025) examined ALPRs in "the Atlantic City (NJ) Police Department (ACPD), which is located on a barrier island. A Smart Policing Initiative (SPI) grant allowed the department to buy and install stationary/fixed ALPRs on all entrances and exits to scan every moving vehicle in and out of the city’s jurisdiction."

Overall, they concluded, "While the ALPR expansion did not reduce violent crime, it was associated with reductions in shootings, motor vehicle thefts, and property crime." The paper also mentions a few other evaluations.

Previous "ALPR evaluations that have tested the technology’s effectiveness on crime reduction are limited to just a few jurisdictions. ALPRs did not significantly reduce crime in treatment areas or post-intervention periods in Mesa, AZ (Taylor et al., 2012), Alexandria City and Fairfax County, VA (Lum et al., 2011),"

Yes, but no: "Flock Cameras Can Surveil Cars Without License Plates: "This is from a 2024 company presentation: Officers can also tap into data showing a car’s decals, bumper stickers, back and top racks -- along with temporary and unique state tags. Flock calls it a 'Vehicle Fingerprint' ...."

(Also posted to 'Tower Dump' Warrants Ruled Unconstitutional, because Flock and ALPRs are also mentioned there.)

Flock is not the only Automated License Plate Reader company. This Market Survey Report from the US Department of Homeland Security [sic] (June, 2025) lists no fewer than 16 ALPR providers.

Bruce Schneier: "Axon Is Another License Plate Surveillance Company": "some municipalities, including Denver, Colorado, are ditching their Flock arrays. But keep in mind that if they’re only switching from Flock to another brand of license-plate readers, like Axon, it’s like a gambling addict trying to kick the habit by switching from FanDuel to DraftKings."

Flock is not the only Automated License Plate Reader company. This Market Survey Report from the Department of Homeland Security (June, 2025) lists no fewer than 16 ALPR providers.

Bruce Schneier: "Axon Is Another License Plate Surveillance Company": "some municipalities, including Denver, Colorado, are ditching their Flock arrays. But keep in mind that if they’re only switching from Flock to another brand of license-plate readers, like Axon, it’s like a gambling addict trying to kick the habit by switching from FanDuel to DraftKings."

You seem to be implying that no innocent person has ever been arrested. Is that really what you believe, or am I misunderstanding?

In the particular case of automated license plate readers, there is ample evidence that they have been used by law enforcement officers to track, stalk, or harass individuals who were not even suspected of committing any crimes.

Agreed. And apparently we can get this by just changing the User-Agent header. Sometimes images contain actual information, though.