They're trialing something like that in France. There's a project that uses machine learning on aerial photography databases to search for objects in peoples' backyards, for enforcement,

https://www.theverge.com/2022/8/30/23328442/france-ai-swimmi... ("French government uses AI to spot undeclared swimming pools — and tax them / The government used machine learning to scan aerial photos of properties")

> Win-win for who exactly?

Society at large? All the people who don't have the breathe the fumes of some garbage commercial vehicle.

> Your backyard fence looks DIY

Provided it's up for code, whether it was "done yourself" or not doesn't matter.

> your porch light looks like a fire hazard.

Absolutely this should be reported.

It's not a win-win for society.

What do you think of China, where the application of this idea is widespread?

Most cities have ways for neighbors to report things like this.

Yes, and they're almost exclusively used by the worst type of vindictive chickenshit humans imaginable. I've known people affected by this, whose evil neighbors used 311 as a weapon because they simply didn't like them, and caused them tens of thousands of dollars in forced unnecessary renovations not to mention stress, for trivial violations that are widely ignored.

We absolutely do that all the time?