After the Uvalde mass shooting, which left 21 people dead at an elementary school in Texas last May, Axon, formerly Taser International, announced the development of a ” Taser-equipped drone to deal with mass shootings,” claiming that the device would ” potentially save lives.”Faced with the outcry over the news, the company, which makes equipment for law enforcement, preferred to abandon the project, which did not prevent the resignation of most of its independent ethics committee.

Axon, a company specializing in non-lethal security devices such as tasers and cameras, was founded in 1993 in Scottsdale, Arizona, by Jack Cover, then 73, and Rick Smith, 23, who believed that tasers were the solution to gun violence in the United States. Police forces in more than 100 countries are now equipped with the gun, including Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom and France.

The group, which claims to be the global leader in public safety technologies, states:

“With the new wave of technology disrupting many industries, we are focused on mastering advances such as blockchain, augmented reality and drones, which could transform the work of law enforcement in many ways. “

He adds:

“In order to make the most of the opportunities offered by AI, we have created Axon’s AI Ethics Committee. As the first oversight committee of its kind, it will ensure that our products are developed in an ethical manner. Its work will reassure citizens and convince them that the benefits of AI applications offered to law enforcement will not harm the public. “

The abandonment of the taser-equipped drone project

In the wake of the Buffalo supermarket shooting last May and the Uvalde school shooting in Texas, Axon CEO Rick Smith considered developing a drone equipped with surveillance cameras and a Taser. Installed in a classroom, but equally well in a business or other public place, it could intervene in less than sixty seconds and put an armed individual about to commit a massacre out of action. A human operator had to decide when to trigger the electroshock projectile.

Faced with the public reaction to such a project, Rick Smith announced his abandonment on June 5.

He stated:

“Axon was founded on our mission to protect life. At Axon, we are all focused on solutions that can stop mass shootings and save lives […] We have recently introduced new ideas and concepts to achieve these goals. One of these is an early-stage concept that we felt deserved to be explored further and become part of the important public debate that is underway. This concept involves the use of non-lethal drones with TASER weapons, pre-installed in public spaces, capable of stopping a mass shooting within minutes. We felt it was important to think about this potential technology in a transparent way with the public. “

The resignation of the majority of the AI ethics board

Members of the ethics board were reportedly not consulted on this project, so some decided to resign. On June 6, nine of them issued a statement saying they were caught off guard by the announcement of the Taser drone and that:

“It is with deep regret that we, the nine undersigned members of Axon’s AI Ethics Council, announce our immediate resignation from the Council. “

To them, Axon is ” trading on the tragedy of the Uvalde and Buffalo shootings,” they add, “the Taser-equipped drone has no realistic chance of solving the problem of mass shootings.” They also criticized the drone’s surveillance capability, stating that it ” will harm communities of color and others who are over-policed, and probably far beyond.”

Translated from AXON suspend son projet de drone avec taser, la majorité du Comité d’éthique démissionne