The injured teenage survivor of a January 2025 shooting at a Nashville, Tennessee high school recently sued the manufacturer of an “AI gun detection” system that failed to detect the handgun that left two dead, including the shooter.
According to the lawsuit, which was filed in Davidson County court last month, the security company Omnilert either knew or should have known that there were “significant operational limitations in its gun detection system that could result in detection failures during actual emergencies, including limitations based on camera placement, proximity of the weapon to camera sensors, camera angle, lighting, and weapon visibility.”
Omnilert cofounder Ara Bagdasarian declined Ars’ invitation to answer questions about the lawsuit. System Integrations, the other defendant in the case, which resold the Omnilert system, also did not respond to Ars’ request for comment.
I am so tired of AI being shoved into everything and then people surprised when it doesn’t work. There’s no AI I think that could have detected a small firearm easily concealed. Hell as it is with legal concealed carry you can’t tell who is legally carrying as it is even with some of the most observant eyes watching.
People (and by this I mean the company) keep think that AI can give actual answers. It can’t. It’s a non-detrrminustic system, but they want it to behave deterministically. I’m sure the engineers gave the probability stats up to the business and marketing, who then immediately lowered their pants and shit on them, and then rolled it out as the perfect amazing product
Wasn’t there also a separate incident of a kid holding a harmless item (food?) that an AI system tagged as a gun?
Bananas are not joke.
Why is this any better than a metal detector?
Asking the real questions here. My guess would be: they didn’t have metal detectors, the metal detectors they had reached end-of-life, or preexisting metal detectors failed to integrate into a modern, unified surveillance system. And so the use of AI analytics tools, atop (preexisting) camera systems seemed more hassle-free (a subscription-based software integration) and cost-effective in the short term; that is if the unproven compromise bares any trust…
Yeah, then they have to limit the entrance to the school, add wait times to get in because of processing, and it gives a convenient mass of students for wannabe shooters
Metal detectors in schools are dystopian and nobody who works in a school wants them.
AI is so much better and not dystopian 🙏
Metal detectors in schools are dystopian
Sounds like they fit right in in the country where children are regularly and routinely murdered while at school and society at large is ok with it.
Metal detectors are a logistical nightmare in a school
Worse than getting shot?
What’s the problem? It’s still gotta be like, 99.9% accurate in detecting guns, right?
That’s fine, right? What are the chances that the 0.1% of guns that get through will happen here, right? Right?
In all seriousness (in case you couldn’t sense the sarcasm), I bet the company will stand by that 99.9%, and will win.
Oops, both companies are suddenly restructured under new ownership (a baby new llc) so now there’s nobody to sue.
Watch and see.
Brick by brick!
If it works for orphaned wells and patent trolls it’ll work for this
The director of Citizen Kane never did that!
Can’t wait for this be LLM run companies with 100% ownership by humans, so there’s no liability but the board controls everything.
The next vendor contract will say “shot detector is for entertainment purposes only”.
Didn’t that guy did an AMA on Reddit years ago? Kinda remember something like this being dunked on as another surveillance company trying to cash out on school shootings
Well, the suit is by a minor, so their name is being withheld and this is from January 2025, so the reddit AMA was probably a different school shooting survivor.
Omnilert cofounder Ara Bagdasarian
I mean this person
If there is, I can’t find it. Sounds like an AMA where the person would get dragged over the coals, but who knows with nuReddit.
Soon: ai not meant to detect guns or prevent shootings, read fine print Court: OK cool, case dismissed
I guarantee their contract already has a legal disclaimer for this exact scenario.
Next up: “AI has no duty to protect and serve”
Not hot dog
