AI Surveillance in Schools: Why?

This past February 14^th markedthe one-year anniversary of one of the deadliest school shootings in thenation’s history. Despite being the subject of several 911 calls, and two separate tips to theFBI, the 19-year-old shooter, armed with arifle, left 17 dead at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland,Florida. Since this attack, along with the growing number of incidents ofmass violence, schools across the country have responded with a willingness toadopt unconventional products and practices to improve security. As a result,the rise in public education market led to an “arms race” in the securityindustry, and Big Tech is getting involved, bringing artificial-intelligence(“AI”) powered surveillance. However, is bringing AI surveillance to schoolcampuses crossing the line?

Schools across the country havevaried approach on what they are doing to provide security to students oncampuses. Some have resorted to using more defensive personnel including: increasing police presence, operatinga dedicated police station within the school, or hiring private security guards. Someschools have turned to reinforced or modified equipment, including installationof electronically controlled locks, and bulletproof doors and windows.

Few schools have turned tousing advanced technology. For instance, in Lockport, New York school districtmonitors students with a facial-recognition system. An elementary school in Artesia, NewMexico, installed gunshot-detection devices, similar to equipment that is “used by the military to detect snipersand missiles.” In Michigan, Massachusetts, and California implementedartificial-intelligence software thatscans student’s social media accountfor signs of potential threats, although this programis prone to produce false positives. This potentially may have influencedParkland, Florida’s school district, Broward County Public Schools, decisionlast month to install Avigilon, an experimental AI powered surveillance system.

Avigilonis an AI service acquired last year by the tech giant Motorola Solution forone-billion-dollars. Unlike other AI programs, Avigilon does not use facialrecognition technology, rather an “appearance search” which “would allow a school official to find or highlight people based onwhat they’re wearing.” Designers ofAvigilon further stated that the program’s “security algorithms could spot risky behavior with superhuman speedand precision, potentially preventing another attack.” Although security is a top priority on school campuses, bringing AIto campuses is definitely going to far.

It should be noted that neither facial recognition nor Avigilon’s technology have been proven to deter school violence, while school shootings that produce multiple victims are still extremely rare. Alternatively, use of AI on school grounds presents privacy issues including: the implicit lack of parental consent to a child’s data being collected, how the data on students is being protected, and the possibility that collected information is being used for something else. Each year, millions of Americans are impacted by data breaches. Most notably, in 2017, Cambridge Analytica, a data firm gained accessed to 50 million Facebook profiles, and in 2018, the Equifax breach resulted in compromising the data of 148 million people. But the most significant issue with AI surveillance is that it does nothing to solve the core cause of school violence.

Christopher Yarnell, 21 February 2019