Public schools across the UScontinue to spend millionsimplementing AI-powered surveillance solutions alleged to prevent or mitigate violence.
The only problem: most of them dont work.
The ideas seem sound.
One company says their facial recognition systems could haveprevented the Parkland massacre.
Another startup specializing in gunshot detection says its aggression detectors can alert staff to violencebefore it even happens.
A recentreportfromPro PublicaandWiredshowed that aggression detectors are basically useless.
We rewired the rig so we could measure its output while testing pre-recorded audio clips.
We then recorded high school students and examined which types of sounds set off the detector.
We found that higher-pitched, rough and strained vocalizations tended to trigger the algorithm.
For example, it frequently triggered for sounds like laughing, coughing, cheering and loud discussions.
And those facial recognition systems?
Could a facial recognition-based access control system have produced a different outcome?
The problem here is that, for this to work, schools have to become like prisons.
Locking down a campus is only effective if the entire compound is secure enough to prevent ingress.
After all, a bullet will always travel faster than those charged with responding to a surveillance alert.
If our privacy is being eroded, we should get something tangible in return.
This isnt to say AI shouldnt be used to mitigate the violence problem in the US.
AI, as a general technology, can certainly intervene in situations where violence has occurred.
For example, Freiburger also told us:
Take NYCs license plate system as an example.
The readers can be mounted to city vehicles, intersections and other city infrastructure.
But these systems arereactiveandtargeted.
Audio and video surveillance, even when powered by AI, cant intervene before a shooting occurs.
He continues:
Persistent surveillance affects human behavior at a fundamental level.
Our schools and universities have always been environments that promote academic exploration and nurture inquisitive minds.
By introducing overbearing surveillance technologies, we are threatening those principles.
Theyre already in our public schools, libraries, and mass-transit systems.
