How Paris is Using AI to Secure the 2024 Summer Olympics – NBC4 Washington

A year ago, the president of the Paris Olympics boldly declared that the French capital would be “the safest place in the world” when the Games began next Friday. Tony Estanguet’s confident prediction now seems less far-fetched, with squadrons of police patrolling the streets of Paris, fighter jets and soldiers ready to rush in, and imposing metal fences erected like an iron curtain on either side of the River Seine that will take center stage in the opening show.

France’s massive police and military operation is largely due to the unprecedented security challenges posed by the July 26-Aug. 11 Games. The city has repeatedly suffered deadly extremist attacks and international tensions are high over wars in Ukraine and Gaza.

Rather than build an Olympic park with venues clustered outside the city center, as did Rio de Janeiro in 2016 or London in 2012, Paris has opted to stage many of the events in the heart of its bustling capital of 2 million, with others scattered across suburbs home to millions more. The addition of temporary sports arenas in public spaces and the unprecedented choice of an opening ceremony that stretches for miles along the Seine has made securing them more complex.

The flagship store is located on one of the most famous streets in Paris and sells items ranging in price from 5 to 800 euros.

Olympic organizers are also concerned about cyberattacks, while human rights activists and critics of the Games are concerned about Paris’ use of AI surveillance technology and the broad scope and scale of Olympic security.

In short, Paris has a lot to do with keeping 10,500 athletes and millions of visitors safe. Here’s how it plans to do it.

The security operation, in figures

The army during the Games consists of 45,000 police and gendarmes, supported by a 10,000-strong contingent of soldiers. This contingent has set up the largest military camp in Paris since World War II. From here, the soldiers can reach all the Olympic venues in the city within 30 minutes.

Armed military patrols in vehicles and on foot have become common in busy areas of France since gunmen and suicide bombers acting in the name of al Qaeda and the Islamic State repeatedly attacked Paris in 2015. They have no police powers to arrest attackers, but can tackle and restrain them until police arrive. For visitors from countries where armed street patrols are not the norm, the sight of soldiers with assault rifles can be as jarring as it initially was for people in France.

“At first, they found it very strange to see us and they kept avoiding our presence, making a detour,” said General Éric Chasboeuf, deputy commander of the counter-terrorism forces, called Sentinelle.

“Now it’s in the landscape,” he said.

Rafale fighter jets, AWACS surveillance flights that monitor the airspace, Reaper surveillance drones, helicopters that can carry snipers and equipment to disable drones will monitor the airspace of Paris, which will be closed off by a 150-kilometer (93-mile) no-fly zone around the capital during the opening ceremony. Cameras linked to artificial intelligence software — authorized by a law that expands the state’s surveillance powers for the Games — will flag potential security risks, such as abandoned packages or large crowds,

France is also receiving help from more than 40 countries, which have sent at least 1,900 police reinforcements.

Assassination attempt on Trump highlights risks for Olympics

Attacks by individuals are a major concern, a risk that French officials recently highlighted in the context of the attempted assassination of Donald Trump.

Some involved in the Olympic security operation were shocked that the shooter, armed with an AR-style rifle, came within range of the former US president.

“No one can guarantee that mistakes will not be made. But there it was quite striking,” said General Philippe Pourqué, who oversaw the construction of a temporary camp in southeastern Paris housing 4,500 soldiers from the Sentinel force.

In France, in the past 13 months, men have carried out knife attacks on tourists in Paris, children in a park in an Alpine town, and others. A man who stabbed a teacher to death at his former high school in northern France in October was being monitored by French security services for suspected Islamic radicalization.

Thanks to its long and bitter experience with deadly extremist attacks, France has a dense network of police, intelligence and investigators specialized in the fight against terrorism. Suspects in terrorism cases can be held for longer periods of questioning.

Hundreds of thousands of background checks have scrutinized Olympic ticket holders, employees and others involved in the Games, and applicants for passes to enter Paris’s most tightly controlled security zone along the banks of the Seine. The checks blocked more than 3,900 people, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said. He said some were flagged for suspected Islamic radicalization, left- or right-wing extremism, significant criminal records and other security concerns.

“We are especially attentive to Russian and Belarusian citizens,” Darmanin added, though he did not want to link the exclusions to Russia’s war in Ukraine and Belarus’ role as an ally of Moscow.

Darmanin said 155 people considered “very dangerous” and potentially posing a terrorist threat are also being kept out of the opening ceremony and the Games, with police in some cases searching their homes for weapons and computers.

He said intelligence agencies have not identified any proven terrorist plans against the Games, “but we are extremely alert to them.”

Critics fear that the intrusive security surrounding the Olympics will continue after the Games

Digital rights campaigners fear that Olympic surveillance cameras and AI systems could undermine privacy and other freedoms, targeting homeless people who spend a lot of time in public spaces.

Saccage 2024, a group that has been campaigning against the Paris Games for months, criticized the scale of Olympic security, describing it in a statement to The Associated Press as a “repressive arsenal.”

“And this is not a French exception, far from it, but a systematic phenomenon in host countries,” the report said. “Is it reasonable to offer a month of ‘festivities’ to the most affluent tourists at the expense of a long-term securitization legacy for all the inhabitants of the city and the country?”