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Walk past a cafe's Wi-Fi signal — and you're identified, no phone needed. Soon, radio signals could identify people much like fingerprints. Who will control this tech?
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00:06artificial intelligence that automatically analyzes images more often than not it has one
00:13main target us according to a 2025 study 86% of all patents in machine vision focus on monitoring
00:22and identifying people and now a new level of digital technology is emerging locating and
00:32tracking people using Wi-Fi networks all that and more coming up on DW Science Show welcome to tomorrow
00:43today one day a new kind of sensing technology could make it much easier to detect and track
00:52people unnoticed you could use it to snoop on your neighbor a burglar could check if you're at
01:02home your employer could keep track of your every move but this technology could also bring benefits
01:11it could detect if someone has fallen in a nursing home or help rescuers find people faster during
01:18disasters and parts of it already work at least in the lab researchers in Italy have shown that Wi-Fi
01:25signals can sense people and follow their movement so how does it work Wi-Fi uses electromagnetic waves
01:34and it's everywhere these days it passes through walls and people our bodies reflect and absorb the
01:40signal subtly altering it measuring these changes lets researchers detect movement positions and motion patterns
01:48that one day might become distinctive enough to tell people apart somewhat like a fingerprint at the
01:57Fraunhofer Institute for integrated circuits in Nuremberg scientists are studying how radio waves can be used to
02:03determine what's inside an object not with our eyes of course with electromagnetic radiation to demonstrate the principle they run
02:16an experiment two sealed packages each filled with different screws using radio waves they check what's inside them the system
02:24analyzes how radio frequency electromagnetic signals
02:28are altered as they interact with the objects using principles similar to Wi-Fi and it works the screws can
02:36be identified on the screen when the automatic so if you're packaging screws for a client with an automated system
02:43you could quickly perform a check like this without needing to open anything
02:51radio waves are already part of everyday life we use them to listen to the radio make a cell phone
02:59call or stream music
03:03GPS helps us navigate medical imaging like MRI relies on magnetic fields and radio waves Wi-Fi uses only radio
03:13waves what it can do is still more limited but still
03:16remarkable unlike surveillance cameras it doesn't matter if it's dark or if someone changes how they look instead the system
03:25reads how the body affects the signal but identifying who someone is is much harder the researchers carry out another
03:33test the subject carries a receiver using radio waves they pinpoint her position it's much more precise than conventional cell
03:43phone tracking
03:46the reference point the reference point for our coordinate system is the antenna at the center the person is sitting
03:52about five meters away at an angle of 240 degrees
03:59the system can't identify the person but can track where she is we can see how she's moving the arrow
04:09is getting shorter that means she's moving closer to the antenna
04:14now she's behind it on the other side
04:19but if the person isn't carrying a device tracking becomes more complex
04:26the system has to rely on how signals travel between transmitters
04:32as she moves through the room she scatters and absorbs radio waves
04:37walls and floors reflect the signals as well
04:43and so do objects
04:47with multiple people the problem becomes even harder
04:51it's a bit like ripples in water
04:53one disturbance is easy to track
04:56many overlapping waves are difficult to separate
05:02in practice the signal travels much like light
05:05it doesn't just move along the direct path between a transmitter and a receiver
05:10it's also reflected by objects the ground and walls
05:14at the same time signals can be absorbed
05:17for example by people fabrics or thick concrete
05:20that weakens the signal
05:22and by analyzing those changes we can infer that something crossed the direct path between the transmitter and receiver
05:31when someone moves through the area the radio wave spectrum changes visible here as blue spikes
05:39artificial intelligence can help identify meaningful features in the complex signal data
05:47using AI opens new possibilities
05:51we can use the anomalies in the radio band like reflections and other effects to detect more than we could
05:57with earlier methods
06:02the Italian researchers showed the signals can do even more
06:06in the lab they can help recognize the same person again
06:13they had collected data on about 13 or 14 people
06:18using that same data they were able to re-identify those people
06:21but only in lab conditions
06:23and only with one person in the lab at a time
06:30in other words the system learns patterns
06:33how someone moves or how their body alters the signal
06:37outside the lab it still isn't reliable
06:40but the technology is improving
06:42and unlike cameras it's invisible
06:45works without light and can see through walls
06:47avoiding it is almost impossible
06:50so what does this mean for privacy?
06:54you don't need to worry right now that Wi-Fi might be spying on you when you enter a building
06:59or visit friends
07:00that's not happening today
07:03but in theory with the right hardware
07:07it could one day become possible
07:12the technology is still experimental
07:15but the real question may no longer be if it will be used
07:19but how?
07:23what are the ethical consequences of a technology like this?
07:28who controls it and who sets the limits?
07:30in 2024 the European Union passed the world's first law to regulate AI
07:36but tech billionaires like Elon Musk and Peter Thiel
07:40and companies like Apple and Meta reject limits on AI
07:44while promoting a vision of the future that goes beyond science fiction into the realm of science fantasy
07:54this man wants to go to Mars
07:56Elon Musk, the richest man in the world
08:00while NASA is aiming for a crewed Mars mission around 2040
08:05Musk has set his sights on 2031
08:08he wants to launch the Starship rocket
08:11developed by his company SpaceX
08:13towards Mars in late 2026
08:17and by 2050 he says one million people could be living there
08:23so what is Musk?
08:25a visionary?
08:27or just a megalomaniac with too much money?
08:31we pay a visit to Daniela Tirsch
08:33a Mars expert at the DLR Institute of Planetary Research in Germany
08:37what does science make of these dreams of Mars?
08:41science fiction?
08:42a million people living on Mars is very unlikely
08:49Mars isn't suited for long-term human colonisation
08:52it just doesn't provide the conditions for humans to be able to stay healthy and survive there long term
09:01Mars has far too little gravity
09:04no dense atmosphere
09:06and no protective magnetic field
09:08it's not a plan B
09:10a planet B for humanity
09:14if we have the technology to colonise Mars
09:17then we have the technology to save Earth
09:20our know-how should go into saving our own planet
09:23the best one in the solar system
09:25instead of imagining ourselves somewhere else
09:29but the tech billionaires of Silicon Valley
09:32such as Elon Musk and Peter Thiel
09:34are imagining themselves elsewhere
09:37what drives these people?
09:39is there a dangerous ideology at work here?
09:44Rainer Mühlhof, Germany's first professor of AI ethics
09:48has studied their ideas
09:51for tech billionaires it's no longer just about money
09:54it's about power
09:56and by that they mean the power to shape history
10:01they believe their technology and actions could bring humanity to a new stage of evolution
10:07and that they will play a decisive role in that
10:10in the US a small group of tech billionaires has built a network connecting wealthy elites
10:22big tech companies and right-wing populist movements
10:25reaching all the way into the Trump administration
10:28their aim is human survival but only for a technological elite
10:34these people are dangerous
10:37what we're seeing is a mix of an extremely aggressive ideology and massive power
10:45power in the shape of money, influence and technology
10:51that technology is everywhere
10:53pulling people into systems that collect data
10:56and can explain and predict the behaviour of each person
11:03according to biographers
11:04Elon Musk and Peter Thiel were both fascinated by fantasy and science fiction comics as boys
11:11and that fascination still seems to shape their thinking today
11:15Peter Thiel founded Palantir Technologies
11:18named after the all-seeing stones in Tolkien's Lord of the Rings
11:23the company builds military and intelligence software
11:26powerful tools
11:28and dangerous ones in the wrong hands
11:31as the wizard Gandalf warned
11:33Gotham, the Palantir analytics software
11:36is named after the unruly city in the Batman universe
11:41and Anderal Industries which builds AI controlled weapons
11:45and is closely linked to Palantir
11:48takes its name from a powerful sword in the Lord of the Rings
11:52these tech billionaires sound like characters straight out of science fiction
11:56and they have a plan
11:58critics call it Tescriel
12:06Tescriel is an acronym that bundles several tech world ideologies
12:10one is transhumanism
12:13merging the human brain with computers
12:15promising eternal life in machines
12:19singularity is the moment a super intelligent AI is born
12:22eugenics the idea that only the highly intelligent should reproduce
12:27essentially an elite dictatorship
12:29looming over all this is long-termism
12:32climate change, environmental damage and poverty are sidelined
12:35in favour of spreading humanity across the galaxy
12:38long-termism is a pseudo-ethical idea
12:43it says we should be making moral decisions today
12:46for human lives in the ultra distant future
12:49millions of years in the future
12:51its core belief is that humanity must survive with the help of artificial intelligence
12:56and even expand into space using AI
12:59the irony is that people who promote this idea often use it to distract from the very real problems
13:09AI is causing right now
13:14Peter Thiel for example has claimed that regulating AI would speed up the arrival of the antichrist
13:20he's even said he knows who that is
13:23in his view
13:24Greta Thunberg
13:27he also argues that democracy stands in the way of the future
13:34he says
13:35I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible
13:42the argument goes like this
13:45if AI speeds up climate change through massive resource use
13:49or leads to discrimination and social inequality
13:52those are minor issues
13:54at least when compared to the countless human lives
13:58that could exist in the ultra-distant future
14:05while earth faces climate change and environmental change
14:09or collapse
14:09Elon Musk's plan to colonize mars
14:12is framed as the first step towards a cosmic future
14:15the key idea is terraforming
14:18using technology to reshape mars
14:20making it more like earth with a breathable atmosphere
14:25the idea sounds tempting
14:27but it's not really thought through
14:29for this to work a planet needs two key things
14:32first enough gravity to hold on to an atmosphere
14:36and second a magnetic field to protect that atmosphere
14:40from being stripped away by the sun
14:43so is all this just fantasy?
14:46critics like Heiner Mulhoff use the term tech fascism
14:49to describe these grand future visions promoted by tech billionaires
14:54supporters of this thinking refer to something they call the dark enlightenment
15:01transhumanists and techno-fascist thinkers argue that hierarchies
15:06between genders or ethnic groups are natural
15:12they're natural power relations
15:15not social problems that can be addressed politically
15:22instead they embrace these hierarchies
15:25using them to justify excluding marginalizing and discriminating against certain people
15:34which leads to a troubling question
15:37who exactly is Elon Musk planning to take to mars
15:40a hand-picked elite people like himself and other tech oligarchs
15:44to carry on once they've made earth unlivable
15:49what kind of elite would that even be?
15:52they're describing survival, not a good life
15:54mars is a frozen desert, extremely cold and dry
15:58people would have to live inside domes
16:00there would be no blue sky, no plants, at least not outdoors
16:06tech billionaires are often seen as visionaries
16:09but many people don't fully understand what those visions are
16:13and who would benefit
16:19AI chatbots like chat GPT don't just make mistakes
16:23they sometimes invent things or hallucinate
16:27they don't actually know everything but sound as if they do
16:30filling in the gaps with answers that seem convincing
16:34even when they're wrong
16:35a recent study found that nearly half of their responses
16:39contain problems or mistakes
16:41it's like auto-complete on steroids
16:44but the consequences can be very real
16:49it all started when Martin Banklau typed his name
16:52into Microsoft co-pilot's AI chatbot
16:57I entered my name and where I live
17:02the retired journalist had wanted to see what the AI might say about his blog
17:09and then it said Martin Banklau from Tübingen is in the news over a case of child abuse
17:17it said I showed remorse and shame in court
17:21it described how I abused my niece for years
17:27and what really shocked me wasn't just seeing my full name
17:33it also listed my phone number, my address
17:36and even a map pointing right to my home
17:43the chatbot had invented the story
17:45falsely casting him as the perpetrator
17:47in reality these were cases he had reported on as a journalist
17:51he searched his name again and again
17:54each time with the same result
17:56he was the offender
17:58digital editor Jörg Tschirn says these hallucinations, as they're called, are surprisingly common
18:06AI is trained on huge amounts of data and learns patterns
18:10so it assumes if this word appears
18:13statistically this next one should follow it
18:19in this case it may have learned that whenever this reporter's name came up
18:24a crime was mentioned next
18:26so it built sentences that sound plausible but have nothing to do with reality
18:31what kind of news do you hate
18:34and Bangklau's not alone
18:36a recent study looked at 3,000 responses from 4 AI assistants about news events
18:4345% contained at least one significant problem
18:47in 31% sources were missing, misleading or incorrect
18:5220% of answers included outdated information or hallucinated details
18:59when Bangklau first saw the false claims he stayed silent
19:06it was just too uncomfortable
19:10I was being described as someone who raped his nieces
19:15it was only when my son called from Essen where he lives
19:18he'd seen it and was horrified that things changed
19:24that's when I realized I couldn't just let it go
19:29with a lawyer he tried to take action against co-pilot
19:32but with little success
19:34now he's speaking out
19:41I went to the media because everywhere else I felt like my hands were tied
19:49Microsoft was no help at all
19:52data protection officers didn't help
19:55I contacted the public prosecutor and they rejected my case
19:59even on appeal the Stuttgart General Prosecutor's Office dismissed the case
20:03saying the person in the stories wasn't even real
20:09so do cases like this reveal a deeper problem?
20:12Viktor Jorfi from the Digital Society says current laws aren't keeping up
20:20we tend to think of data protection as a fixed data set and a person appears in it
20:26that's the problem that model is outdated
20:29with AI everything is mixed together and the links are much looser
20:33that doesn't reflect reality anymore
20:36we need to rethink the law so it properly covers how AI actually works
20:40in other words the law hasn't caught up with how AI works and what can go wrong
20:51Microsoft says it's taken action
20:54Bernklau's name is now blocked on co-pilot so he no longer appears at all
21:00in a statement the company says it's working to improve responses and urges users to verify sources
21:08we also explicitly inform users that they are interacting with an AI system
21:13in addition we recommend checking the links to source materials
21:21according to Bernklau Microsoft offered him 14,000 euros in compensation
21:26and to cover his legal costs
21:29he turned it down he wants a ruling from the courts
21:34this case could set a precedent which could help create the legal and political framework
21:40to regulate AI and define responsibility
21:47that could take time until then his legal fight continues
21:55so is this AI or is it real? it's getting harder to tell and that matters more than ever
22:02when manipulation and fake news erode trust democracy is put at risk
22:08social media is also where many young people shape their views
22:12learn to get along and find their communities
22:15that's why a pilot project in Germany is helping students build the skills they'll need
22:21in today's digital democracy
22:28today these seventh graders are turning their classroom into a film set
22:32the topic is values and community
22:35they're acting directing and filming doing it all themselves
22:39and this is the result
22:43so what did we learn from this?
22:46good manners aren't just about being polite
22:49they can make or break a conversation
22:53other classes say political science is boring
22:56but we got to say we're making videos
23:00we had a lot of fun and it was really nice working together in groups
23:07it's all part of a pilot project
23:10over the past weeks students here in Bad Kambak have been designing their own politics and economics lessons
23:16instead of lectures they worked on creative projects
23:20their teacher Tanja Heinisch is impressed
23:23and the class has grown much closer along the way
23:27everyone learned something, discovered their strengths, showed more of who they are
23:32it was interesting to see quieter students step forward and speak up
23:38the project is run by the non-profit group Digital School Story
23:43experts come into schools and show how storytelling and video production work
23:47after that it's up to the students
23:49they take responsibility, make their points, listen to each other and find compromises
23:55this kind of teamwork is democracy in action
24:02that's what we need right now
24:04people who want to get involved, who are curious
24:06and who have the confidence to dive in
24:10more education on democracy is urgently needed in schools
24:15only about two-thirds of adults in Germany believe young people will be ready to stand up for democracy
24:21young people themselves are even more skeptical
24:24just 54 percent believe their generation will stand up for democracy as adults
24:31communication coach Maya Sama says projects like this are an important step
24:36she often works with children and says media literacy is essential to prepare them for democracy
24:46that means understanding the business model behind social media
24:50the risks and how AI shapes us
24:53is a particular image real or fake
24:57kids need this knowledge as they navigate the digital world
25:03in our workshops Sama raises awareness of these challenges
25:07her message policymakers need to do much more to bring these topics into schools
25:14in this community they've taken a first step
25:17the students had fun, learned a lot
25:20and took a lot of pride in their work
25:26what are stars made of?
25:28how many colors can butterflies see?
25:31could robots have babies one day?
25:34do you have a science question?
25:36then send it to us as a video, text, or voice message
25:40if we answer it on the show
25:42then we'll send you a little gift as a thank you
25:45so go on, just ask
25:52and that's all from us this time around
25:54thanks for watching
25:55we'll be back soon with more exciting stories
25:59on tomorrow today
26:00see you then
26:02take care
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