WorkSeptember 10, 2026via Wired AI

Clearview AI Is Testing an AI Tool That Would Let Cops Unearth Your Life Online

Why it matters

A new AI-powered surveillance capability is entering law enforcement workflows, raising immediate questions about privacy, oversight, and how AI tools built for one purpose get repurposed for another. Practitioners building with or advising on AI need to understand the deployment-at-scale story; policymakers and workers will watch how fast this spreads.

Key signals

  • Clearview AI testing InquiryIQ prototype
  • Uses xAI's Grok model
  • Surfaces associates, social accounts, other online information
  • Integrated with Clearview's existing facial-recognition and data-scraping capabilities
  • Designed for law enforcement use
  • Previously unreported; details emerged via Wired investigation
  • Raises privacy and civil-liberties concerns in policing context

The hook

Clearview AI is testing InquiryIQ — an AI tool that lets police instantly map a person's entire digital footprint. xAI's Grok powers the prototype.

InquiryIQ, a previously unreported prototype, tested a model from xAI, maker of Grok, to surface associates, social accounts, and other information about people identified through Clearview.

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