Axon’s Taser Drone Plans Prompt AI Ethics Board Resignations

Axon’s is the latest external AI ethics board to come in conflict with its associated tech company. Google famously convened and disbanded an AI ethics advisory group inin 2019. These panels often operate without clear structure beyond asking members to sign a nondisclosure agreement, and companies can use them for “virtue signaling” rather than substantive input, says Cortnie Abercrombie, founder of the nonprofit AI Truth.

In Axon’s case, multiple AI Ethics Board members who spoke with WIRED said that the company did have a record of listening to their suggestions, including in anot to deploy facial recognition on body cameras. That made the sudden Taser-drone announcement all the more jarring. There’s usually conflict in companies between people who understand a technology’s risks and limitations and those who want to make products and profits, says Wael AbdAlmageed, a computer scientist at the University of Southern California who resigned from the Axon AI Ethics Board. If companies like Axon want to take AI ethics seriously, he says, the role of these boards cannot be advisory anymore.

“If the AI Ethics Board says this technology is problematic and the company should not develop products, then they shouldn’t. I know it’s a difficult proposition, but I really think this is how it has to be done,” he says. “We’ve seenThe AI Ethics Board tried to persuade Axon that it should be responsive to the communities affected by its products, Friedman says, rather than the police who buy them.

Four members of the AI Ethics Board didn’t sign the resignation letter. They include former Seattle police chief Carmen Best, former Los Angeles police chief Charlie Beck, and former California Highway Patrol commissioner Warren Stanley.

United States Latest News, United States Headlines

Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.

Axon halts plans for Taser drone as 9 on ethics board resignThe company said it was working to build drones armed with the electric stunning weapons that could fly in schools and “help prevent the next Uvalde, Sandy Hook, or Columbine.”
Source: dothaneagle - 🏆 337. / 59 Read more »

Plans for Taser drone halted as 9 on company’s ethics board resignAxon, the company best known for developing the Taser, said Monday it was halting plans to develop a Taser-equipped drone after a majority of its ethics board resigned over the controversial projec…
Source: ladailynews - 🏆 332. / 59 Read more »

Plans for Taser drone halted after 9 on company’s ethics board resignThe company best known for developing the Taser says it’s halting plans to develop a Taser-equipped drone.
Source: PennLive - 🏆 463. / 53 Read more »

Axon drops Taser drone idea after 9 on ethics board resignAxon, the company best known for developing the Taser, said Monday it is halting plans to develop a Taser-equipped drone after a majority of its ethics board resigned over the controversial project.
Source: CBSNews - 🏆 87. / 68 Read more »

Company halts plans for Taser-firing drone after most of ethics board resignsAxon, the company best known for developing the Taser, said Monday it was halting plans to develop a Taser-equipped drone after a majority of its ethics board resigned over the controversial project. I wonder how many of the Board have played Triangle Strategy? Utility, Morality or Liberty ;) Still good reading. What could go wrong?
Source: adndotcom - 🏆 293. / 63 Read more »

Taser Maker ‘Pauses’ Project To Put Drones Equipped With Stun Guns In SchoolsAxon Enterprise CEO backpedals on the proposal as members of the company’s ethics panel quit in protest. push rewind. pause is for dubbing work. Weapons, near proximity ones, on drones was a violation of several FAA regs - some idiot did not do their homework on civilian use of airspace
Source: ForbesTech - 🏆 318. / 59 Read more »