Federal Authorities Allege Exaggerated AI Capabilities in Evolv's Firearm Detectors
In a recent turn of events, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has accused Evolv, a company renowned for its AI-based weapons detection systems, of making unfounded claims about the accuracy and effectiveness of its technology.
The FTC's press release emphasizes that if companies make unsupported news, they can expect to hear from the regulatory body. The allegations against Evolv centre around the company's claims that its system is superior to regular metal detectors, a claim the FTC argues is mostly marketing hype.
The FTC claims that Evolv has falsely implied that users can have a highly secure weapon-detection system and a seamless experience for people entering a building. However, the problem lies in the fact that setting the scanners to a lower sensitivity level allows too many weapons to get through undetected, while setting it to a higher sensitivity sets off too many false alarms.
The settlement order requires Evolv to give certain K-12 school customers the option to cancel their contracts, which are typically multi-year deals. This decision comes after instances where Evolv's scanners failed to detect weapons, such as a 7-inch knife passing through an Evolv Express scanner in a New York school, and setting off false alarms for a student's lunchbox while detecting an off-duty cop's weapon.
In response, Evolv's interim president and CEO, Mike Ellenbogen, issued a press release stating that the FTC did not challenge the fundamental effectiveness of their technology and that no monetary relief is included in the resolution. Ellenbogen emphasized that the inquiry was about past marketing language and not the system's ability to add value to security operations.
The Evolv weapons detector gained national attention earlier this year when it was installed in the New York subway system. However, the CEO at the time noted that the subway system wasn't a good use case for the system.
The FTC's director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection, Samuel Levine, reiterated in a press release that news about technology, including artificial intelligence, need to be backed up, especially when they involve the safety of children. In a proposed settlement order, Evolv would be banned from making unsupported claims about its products' ability to detect weapons using AI.
The new President and CEO of Evolv, Allan Noe, has not yet released a statement regarding the allegations.
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