AI software allows police to geolocate you using a single interior image
It may have helped find Andrew Tate.
Screenshot from Daniel Heinen LinkedIn account/Illustration by Cybernews
Follow us
- Raven can geolocate rental and hotel interiors from a single image, even without location metadata.
- The system matches small room details, such as tiles, appliances, toilets, and toiletries, against online listings.
- The LAPD and Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office have bought access to Raven, according to 404 Media.
- Raven may have helped locate Andrew Tate, but law enforcement has not confirmed using it in that case.
Key Takeaways by nexos.ai, reviewed by Cybernews staff.
Posted a close-up image of a moisturizer in your hotel’s bathroom? Police can now geolocate you in seconds – thanks to the AI-powered Raven system.
Daniel Heinen, CEO of Graylark Technologies, announced a new feature in Raven, previously known as GeoSpy, that helps investigators to geolocate interior images across millions of short-term rental units worldwide.
“Short-term rentals can be used as locations for human trafficking and exploitation. For investigators, a photo or video from inside a property may be a critical lead, but without an address or location tag, knowing where to start can be difficult,” he wrote in a LinkedIn post.
In a promotional video shared by Heinen, the system located an Airbnb listing in South Carolina using an image of a washing and drying machine.
Another example shows the Raven system matching the image of a bathroom’s corner to the California-based rental unit. The apartment was geolocated by analyzing small details, such as tiles and the toilet bowl.
Unlike reverse image search, which looks for an identical picture posted online, Raven identifies unique characteristics and finds rental listings even if the place has changed slightly.
No location data or other image metadata appears to be needed.
Raven’s database may not be limited to short-term rent sites like Airbnb. 404 Media traced back an apartment geolocated in a promo video to a property listed on Zillow, a platform for long-term rentals and for-sale listings.
Hotels, too, are on Raven’s radar. A video promoting a feature called HotelID suggests that a room can be geolocated using a close-up image of toiletries in the hotel’s bathroom.
Active cooperation with law enforcement
The Los Angeles Police Department and Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office (MDSO) bought access to Raven, according to 404 Media.
The software may have helped law enforcement to locate the “manosphere” influencer Andrew Tate, as suggested by Heinen’s video posted in July 2026, a day after the content creator was arrested in Miami over rape and trafficking charges, among others.
“A look at one of our early GeoSpy (now Raven) AI models for indoor video geolocation. We're only beginning to scratch the surface of what's possible,” Heinen then posted.
Law enforcement, however, didn’t comment on the exact surveillance methods it used in the Tate case, so the use of Raven remains a speculative yet powerful example of how social media content can be used to find criminals.
The Raven system can also identify a car – its make, model, and year – from a partial, obstructed, or interior view, according to the company’s website.
It also enables the collection of live intelligence without an image, by using an email address or phone number instead.
Raven, according to the company, “checks supported online services at search time and returns what is publicly there, each result with its source and date.”
