What happens when you deploy hundreds of high-tech surveillance cameras against a student population known for their hacking skills? We’re about to find out.

This week, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s student newspaper the Tech reported that the university is about to spend over $3 million installing over 500 AI-integrated surveillance cameras across the school’s campus.

As the paper explains, the cameras will likely be able to collect real-time facial data, as well as more info related to object classification. Basically,that means it’ll be able to automatically identify, catalogue, and track the movement of physical items. That means people, yes, but also personal belongings like backpacks, boxes, vehicles, bags, and more.

While the cameras will surely be hooked into the MIT police department’s already-existing CCTV feed, the footage collected will also be automatically monitored by AI-RGUS, a firm which develops 24/7 surveillance monitoring software, the Tech reports.

As MIT spokesperson Kimberly Allen explained to the Tech, data will be “retained up to 30 days,” though exceptions will be granted.

Defending the cameras, Allen noted they’re “part of regular efforts to promote campus security,” adding that the camera’s audio surveillance features will be disabled, though that’s more a matter of state law than of any kind of principle on MIT’s part.

It’s an alarming move, coming after MIT faculty have warned that campus police are preemptively punishing students for speeches and protests outside of the established disciplinary process.

And as critics pointed out on social media, the $300 million project comes just a month after MIT administrators shuttered two campus libraries and reduced staffing at others, citing a major budget deficit. Though the news was first reported in December of 2025, those libraries were given a closing date of June 2026 — making the timing of the costly new surveillance dragnet highly suspect.

“Look on the bright side,” joked Syracuse University public relations professor Joshua Foust on Bluesky, “at least they also closed down libraries to save money for the AI cameras.”

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