Axon’s Taser Drone Plans Prompt AI Ethics Board Resignations

An announcement last week that the company planned to equip drones with tasers and cameras as a way to end mass shootings in schools caused a majority of the board to resign yesterday.

The damage had been done by the company's decision to back down. The advisory board was asked to consider a pilot program to outfit a select number of police departments with stun guns and drones. The majority of the ethics advisory board opposed it both times. Barry Friedman, chairman of the advisory board, told WIRED that launching the pilot program without addressing the board's concerns is disrespectful.

The company appeared to be trading on the tragedy of recent mass shootings in Buffalo and Uvalde, Texas, according to the members of the ethics board who resigned. Despite mentioning both mass shootings in the press release, Rick Smith denied that the company's proposal was opportunist. Smith said that he envisions a school run by trained staff with hundreds of stun guns in the air. Freidman said that if the idea is not going to come to fruition, it will distract the world from a serious problem.

University of Washington law professor Ryan Calo is one of the people who resigned from the letter. In order to curb gun violence in the United States, there needs to be change. The deaths of children in Uvalde, Texas did not happen because the school did not have tasers.

He says that there are better ways to deal with violence in schools.

The board was concerned that weaponized drones could lead to increased use of force by police. The advisory board was going to release a report on the evaluation of the pilot program.

Calo says that the company didn't do what the board told them to do. The board could not fully detail its opposition due to the announcement of the plans by the company. Out of the blue, the company decided to abandon that process. That is the reason it is so sad.

It's hard to imagine that police or trained staff in a school will be able to use a stun gun on a target. The technology wouldn't stay there even if a drone operator saved a suspect's life.