Nearly $4M AI-powered weapon scanner fails to detect knife

Safety and security signs outside a high school in Queens, New York.

Lindsey Nicholson/Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

An AI-powered weapon scanner intended to create a “weapon-free zone” failed to detect the knife.
A New York school district bought the system for about $4 million and found it to be completely inoperable.
Last year, a 17-year-old assailant carried a 9-inch knife through a scanner and stabbed another student.

There is great anxiety and great excitement about the future of AI.

There are also questions about its capabilities.

A school district in New York learned this the hard way. The company spent nearly $4 million to purchase an AI-powered weapons scanner from Evolve Technologies. The company touts the weapon scanner as a “proven artificial intelligence” capable of creating “weapon-free zones.”

According to the BBC, last Halloween, a student carried a 9-inch knife through a scanner and used it to stab other students multiple times.

Local news station WKTV reported that teachers broke up the altercation and the victim was taken to hospital. Police said at the time that the student’s injuries were not life-threatening.

“We all asked the same question when we saw the horrific video: How did the students bring the knives into the school?” Utica School Superintendent Brian Nolan told the BBC.

The answer seems to be that artificial intelligence is not yet foolproof.

A BBC study found that Evolve Technologies claims its system can detect guns, knives and explosives, but the scanner missed 42% of large knives during 24 walkthroughs. found.

Evolv Technologies claims on its website that its weapon detection system can scan weapons ten times faster than conventional metal detectors. The company did not respond to insider requests for comment at the time of publication.

“AI algorithms have been trained on thousands of different items, different weapons, different guns, even different personal items, phones, keys, etc.,” co-founder Anil Chitkara told North Carolina news station WRAL. there is,” he said. ”

Chitkara explained that if someone walks through it, the system will send an alert if anything looks suspicious. Take a picture and place a red box over the area where you detected the suspicious item. Police can search for weapons.

Hundreds of schools are using Evolve’s scanners, even though they couldn’t accurately identify long knives and other weapons, according to the website. The technology is also used in stadiums and theme parks like Six Flags.