Ellison told the throngs at an Oracle financial analyst meeting that it was not enough to make companies pay for software licences; there was gold to be made from using AI to spy on everyone.

 He sees Oracle as a key player in AI infrastructure through its unique networking architecture and partnerships with AWS and Microsoft.

"AI is hot, and databases are not," he said, making Oracle's part of the puzzle less sexy but no less critical - AI systems have to have well-organised data, or else they won't be that valuable.

He said that some of the biggest names in cloud computing (and Elon [look at me]Musk's Grok) have turned to Oracle to run their AI infrastructure. "If Elon and Satya [Nadella] want to pick us, that's a good sign - we have valuable and differentiated tech," Ellison said, adding: One of the ideal uses of that differentiated offering? Maximising AI's pubic security capabilities.

Ellison seems to have not read 1984, as the arguments are remarkably similar.  He might have read it, but seems to have ignored some of the key issues.

"The police will be on their best behaviour because we're constantly watching and recording everything that's going on," Ellison told analysts.

He described police body cameras that were constantly on, with no ability for officers to disable the feed to Oracle. Even requesting privacy for a bathroom break or a meal only meant sections of recording would require a subpoena to view - not that the video feed was ever stopped.

AI would be trained to monitor officer feeds for anything untoward, which Ellison said could prevent abuse of police power and save lives.

 "Citizens will be on their best behaviour because we're constantly recording and reporting," Ellison added. However, it's unclear what he sees as the source of those recordings - police body cams or publicly placed security cameras.

"There are so many opportunities to exploit AI," he said.