AI SCANNER MISTAKES TEEN’S BAG OF POTATO CHIPS FOR A GUN, AND POLICE ARRIVE WITH GUNS DRAWN
It’s been years now. But I went to a very high-population high school 30 years ago in NYC. The numbers were about 2,700 students, which is more than a fair amount. So security was definitely a concern and priority back then. Besides it’s own students to monitor, there was a pretty dangerous other high school literally across the street. And back then gang conflagrations could happen anywhere. But I remember being a little sad to see metal detectors appear at my school’s entrance. Yet my sad ideas of how things should be but aren’t had no idea where things would go. I can’t help having nostalgia about then, now, hearing about how an AI scanner at a high school today mistook a bag of potato chips for a gun. And then the police arrived and made things even more dangerous.
AI MISTAKING A BAG OF POTATO CHIPS IS SCARY, AND THEN THE POLICE RESPONSE IS EVEN SCARIER
So there are two things scary about this, which are more than the sum of their parts after you add them together. First off, you have yet another instance of AI screwing things up in royal fashion. A bag of potato chips is, at worst, a terrible Faraday cage. But now we live in a world where AI deciphering data sees that bag as a gun and issues an alarm. Second, you have the police response in America today, which is a literal crap shoot- pun intended. And this police response leaves a lot to be desired. Multiple police vehicles responded and surrounded the teenager with no gun with guns drawn. Seriously, at this point we’re way beyond imagining what could have gone wrong.
Related:
NO ONE DIED HERE, BUT ALL TOO SOON A BAG OF “POTATO CHIPS” WILL GET INNOCENTS KILLED
Fortunately, just trauma to the teen. Who obeyed screamed commands with guns drawn to get down on his knees and put his hands behind his back to be handcuffed. The police then searched him and, of course, didn’t find a gun or anything else. So then the cops went to where the teen had been standing when they arrived all en flagrante and discovered the culprit: a bag of potato chips. But we need to think about incidents like this. Because police and the military are turning more and more to using AI to tell them what to do. And let’s not forget: we’re already using AI for drones. Just imagine an armed drone responding to the threat of a bag of potato chips with bullets.
What could go wrong?
