Axon ethics board members resign over taser

Axon

Taser maker Axon is walking back plans to make a taser-equipped drone after nine members of its AI Ethics board resigned. Axon, a technology company known for developing tasers and products for police and the military, wanted to market the product as a means of stopping mass shootings. 

Pushback from the ethics AI Ethics board was swift and forceful. 

"We all feel the desperate need to do something to address our epidemic of mass shootings. But Axon's proposal to elevate a tech-and-policing response when there are far less harmful alternatives, is not the solution," read a statement from the resigning board members.

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This has been a year in the making. Axon brought the armed drone idea to the ethics board and was met with concerns over how the system could be misused. The original idea was to deploy the drone to target active shooters, but there would be little stopping agencies to utilize the drone in other capacities. The ethics board recognized this and drew the line. 

"We wish it had not come to this. 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. For a time, we saw that influence play out in some of Axon's decisions. From not equipping any of its products with facial recognition capabilities, to withdrawing a new software tool to collect data from social media websites, to promoting desperately needed legislation to bring the use of license plate readers under control, we observed tangible evidence of the difference we were making. Our insistence to Axon that the community, and not the police, should be the company's ultimate customers led Axon to establish the Community Advisory Coalition, a group which brings together community leaders to share perspectives on Axon's products and services."

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