But I want it to be technology that we know works. I'm not an early adopter of tech simply because I've seen too many devices get a lot of hype, then crash and burn. So if we're going to spend taxpayer money, I want it to be something we know works, not just something that uses the latest buzzwords.

A school system in Utah, however, may be doing just that.

While students, teachers and parents are gearing up for the new school year in Utah, administrators are also reviewing procedures for things many people never considered a generation or two ago.

Now it‘s reading, writing, arithmetic and… school safety.

Summit County School District officials say they now have a new, and less intrusive tool to keep their schools safe.

“It’s just one more layer in our security platform,” said district CEO Mike Tanner.

The district is looking at several security options before settling on one called "Zero Eyes."

“The Zero Eyes system uses artificial intelligence to look through our existing camera system here, we didn’t have to put any new cameras up. And it looks only for one thing, that one thing is unholstered firearms,” he explained.

The system has been in operation since the second half of last school year, but this will be the first full school year it will be utilized. There are roughly 650 cameras throughout Summit County School District buildings.

We've talked about Zero Eyes before.

Mostly, we've talked about how they keep popping up as the only company that meets state-mandated requirements in multiple states--conveniently, I should note--though they claim they've had nothing to do with that.

We also noted that AI-gun detection technology doesn't exactly have a strong track record. While Zero Eyes does meet standards other companies don't, that tends to revolve around the language of "qualified anti-terrorism technology" and that doesn't necessarily mean it's good at detecting a teenager with a Glock stuck in his pants.

This isn't inexpensive technology, after all, and so far, there's not much reason to believe it'll actually work, particularly in this environment.

Let's not forget that New York City launched its own use of AI to detect guns in the subway system a few months back and it hasn't gone well, as Cam will cover in an upcoming post. There's really no reason to believe Zero Eyes is going to work any better. So far, there have been no media efforts to examine the company's claims about the efficacy of their technology, merely glorified press releases and government entities like school systems saying they're going to start using it or already are.

That's not really comforting.

Look, if AI gun detection works, so be it. If it doesn't trample on my rights, then it's better than what a lot of people want.

The issue is that people are paying for this, trusting it over things like more armed teachers, more school resource officers, and other technology that's better proven but lacks the PR of AI-driven systems. If it doesn't work, children could die.

That's bad enough, but then we'll have all the claims about how the issue is really that we're allowed to have guns.

Living in the 21st Century isn't what I thought it would be, and mostly because some of the technology I expected just isn't a thing. AI isn't even what I expected it to be--it's not artificial intelligence, really--but using it in a way like this would make some degree of sense...if it works as advertised.

And we're not seeing evidence that it does.

There are better ways to spend taxpayer money until it does.