An artificial intelligence weapon was rejected by the company's own ethics board because it was so dangerous. But that didn't stop the CEO from announcing the weapon as a response to the Uvalde, Texas elementary school shooting.
A lightweight taser that can be deployed on a drone or robot has been announced by the company. The operator will have agreed to take on legal and moral responsibility for any actions taken.
They want to stop school shootings.
The recent school shooting in Uvalde, Texas compelled Rick Smith to share the project with the public because politicians in the US have not been effective in dealing with this.
Republicans insist that their efforts to increase mental health access and provide tools to crisis intervention officers are an acceptable alternative to gun control reform. Following the Uvalde shooting, Fox News gave a platform to guests who suggested distributing bulletproof "ballistic blankets" to school children as an effective means of reducing gun violence.
Local public safety agencies would have real-time access to the taser-drone project's camera networks. The company is not sure who would operate the drones.
The company's Artificial Intelligence ethics advisory board voted against the idea of moving forward with a limited pilot project. "Reasonable minds can differ on the merits of police-controlled Taser-equipped drones - our own board disagreed internally - but we unanimously are concerned with the process Axon has employed regarding this idea of drones in school classrooms."
Smith doesn't pay much attention. A proof-of-concept model could be ready in a year and field trials could be done in two.
A law professor at New York University called the idea dangerous and fanciful. Barry Friedman said that drones can't fly through closed doors. There are physical properties of the universe. Unless you have a drone in every classroom in America, it won't work.
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