The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has reached a settlement with the company Evolv over its technology, which allegedly uses artificial intelligence (AI) to automatically detect weapons like guns or knives in luggage. As part of the agreement, the security firm can no longer claim that its scanner can identify weapons and distinguish them from harmless personal items. The company is also prohibited from advertising that laptops and other devices do not need to be removed from bags or suitcases. Furthermore, Evolv is not allowed to make claims about the accuracy of weapon detection compared to the use of metal detectors.
Evolv had promoted its AI-based luggage scanners by stating that “no trained operator is needed to identify potential threats.” In contrast to most conventional X-ray machines, which require an operator to interpret an X-ray image, Evolv’s technology simply signals with red or green whether a bag should be searched by a human. This supposedly maximizes the “throughput of scanned luggage” and minimizes the number of items that need to be manually searched. According to Evolv, it has over 800 customers worldwide, including stadiums, theme parks, museums, schools, hospitals, churches, and city administrations.
Civil rights activists have criticized AI as an expensive, supposed miracle solution. The FTC accused Evolv of knowingly, repeatedly, and unlawfully making misleading claims about its technology. Ultimately, like conventional scanners, Evolv’s technology can only detect metal and trigger alarms for metallic objects. A typical contract for Evolv’s devices costs tens of thousands of US dollars per year, five times the cost of traditional metal detectors. A district in Kentucky spent 17 million US dollars to equip its schools with Evolv’s hardware and software. However, the results are often disappointing. From July to October, New York City conducted a test of Evolv’s technology in 20 subways and stations. Out of 2,749 scans, there were 118 false alarms. Inspectors confiscated twelve knives but no firearms.
The agreement with the FTC allows many schools that rely on Evolv scanners to terminate their contracts early. Evolv is expressly prohibited from making claims about essential aspects of the devices, such as performance, effectiveness, type, or key features that are supposed to be superior to standard detectors. This includes statements about the use of algorithms, AI, and other automated systems and tools. The US civil rights organization Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) welcomes the agreement, stating there are good reasons why AI is often labeled as hype or “snake oil.” Companies frequently use public data to advance surveillance through AI, leaving taxpayers to discover that it doesn’t work. Even AI software for detecting and locating gunshots rarely provides evidence for such incidents.