XPost: sac.politics, talk.politics.guns, alt.engineering.electrical   
   XPost: sci.military.naval   
   From: invalid@dont-email.me   
      
   WASHINGTON — Axon, 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.   
      
   Axon’s founder and CEO Rick Smith said the company’s announcement last   
   week — which drew a rebuke from its artificial intelligence ethics board —   
   was intended to “initiate a conversation on this as a potential solution.”   
   Smith said the ensuing discussion “provided us with a deeper appreciation   
   of the complex and important considerations” around the issue.   
      
   As a result, “we are pausing work on this project and refocusing to   
   further engage with key constituencies to fully explore the best path   
   forward,” he said. The development was first reported by Reuters.   
      
   The board had voted 8-4 a few weeks ago to recommend Axon not proceed with   
   a pilot of the Taser drone and had concerns about introducing weaponizing   
   drones in over-policed communities of color.   
      
   But after the mass shooting at an Uvalde, Texas elementary school, the   
   company announced it was beginning development of the drone. Smith told   
   The Associated Press last week he made the idea public in part because he   
   was “catastrophically disappointed” in the response by police who didn’t   
   move in to kill the suspect for more than an hour.   
      
   The board issued a rare public rebuke of the project, saying it was a   
   dangerous idea that went far beyond the initial proposal the board had   
   reviewed for a Taser-equipped police drone. It said it had “pleaded with   
   the company to pull back” before the announcement and that many of them   
   believed it was “trading on the tragedy of the Uvalde and Buffalo   
   shootings.”   
      
   Smith had rejected that idea in an interview with the AP last week and   
   said he was pressing ahead because he believed the Taser drone could be a   
   viable solution to save lives. He contended the idea needed to be shared   
   as part of the public conversation about school safety and effective ways   
   for police to safely confront attackers.   
      
   On Monday, nine members of the ethics board, a group of well-respected   
   experts in technology, policing and privacy, announced resignations,   
   saying they had “lost faith in Axon’s ability to be a responsible   
   partner.”   
      
   “We wish it had not come to this,” the statement said. “Each of us joined   
   this Board in the belief that we could influence the direction of the   
   company in ways that would help to mitigate the harms that policing   
   technology can sow and better capture any benefits.”   
      
   “We tried from the start to get Axon to understand that its customer has   
   to be the community that a policing agency serves, not the policing agency   
   itself,” one of the board’s members, Barry Friedman, a New York University   
   law professor, said in an interview. “It has been a painful struggle to   
   try to change the calculus there.”   
      
   Friedman said a major concern was Smith’s decision to move forward with   
   the plan and announce it publicly without adequately hearing the concerns   
   of the board members.   
      
   “What’s the emergency? School shootings are a crisis. I agree,” Friedman   
   said. “But Axon, on its own best timeline, isn’t going to come up with   
   anything for a couple of years. Why was it necessary to jump ahead like   
   this?”   
      
   “What Rick is suggesting is a necessary public dialogue was really just   
   jumping over the head of the board,” Friedman said.   
      
   In his statement, Smith said it was “unfortunate that some members of   
   Axon’s ethics advisory panel have chosen to withdraw from directly   
   engaging on these issues before we heard or had a chance to address their   
   technical questions.”   
      
   “We respect their choice and will continue to seek diverse perspectives to   
   challenge our thinking and help guide other technology options,” Smith   
   said.   
      
   https://www.ocregister.com/2022/06/06/plans-for-taser-drone-halted-as-9-   
   on-companys-ethics-board-resign/   
      
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