> As though it would 1) be a practical possibility
Well that's kind of the thing. With AI it is. In theory, they can now monitor all of us at the same time on a scale never before thought possible. The time of "big brother has better things to do than monitor you specifically" is over.
I think the O^n problem of attention & memory means that with AI it still really isn’t all that possible either.
Then are able to record everything now, they are able to add "AI" to it. The "AI" will tell them some result. They will prosecute based on that. The fact that "AI" isn't something that can reliable "monitor" people is something they won't care about.