Evolv, the company behind the controversial “artificial intelligence” system used to detect guns in New York subways and schools across the country, has been accused by the Federal Trade Commission of misleading customers, according to a new press release from the FTC. The agency alleges that the Evolv Express scanners, which are used in about 800 schools in 40 states, are not as accurate at detecting weapons as the company says. And the FTC wants Evolv to stop overstating what its AI can do.
“In the FTC’s proposed settlement order, Evolv would be prohibited from making unsubstantiated claims about its products’ ability to detect weapons using artificial intelligence and would also be required to offer certain K-12 school customers the opportunity to cancel their contracts, which are often lock-in. customers of multi-year agreements,” the FTC said in a press release on Tuesday.
The Evolv weapon detector received widespread notice in the national press earlier this year when the system was installed in the New York subway system. But even the CEO at the time noted that the subway system was not a good use case.
The FTC alleges that Evolv falsely claimed that users could avoid making the necessary trade-offs to have a more secure weapon identification system and a “seamless experience” for people entering the building. At the heart of the problem, setting scanners to a low sensitivity level allows too many weapons to pass undetected, and setting them to high sensitivity sets up too many false alarms.
Evolv says its system is superior to traditional metal detectors because it uses AI, but the FTC says that’s more than just marketing.
“The FTC has been clear that claims about technology—including artificial intelligence—need to be backed up, and that’s especially important when these claims involve the safety of children,” said Samuel Levine, director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection, according to the report. in a press release. “If you make those claims without adequate support, you can expect to hear from the FTC.”
The FTC notes in a court filing that on Oct. 2022 A New York school student brought in a 7-inch knife that went through the Evolv Express scanner. And sometimes, the Evolv scanners failed to detect an off-duty police officer’s weapon while triggering a student’s lunchbox alarm. The school increased sensitivity levels after the stabbing incident, but that only doubled the false alarm rate to 50%, according to the FTC.
Evolv did not respond to emailed questions Tuesday morning. Gizmodo will update this post when we hear back.
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