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Armed police swarm student after AI mistakes bag of Doritos for a weapon

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Re: Armed police swarm student after AI mistakes bag of Doritos for a weapon

#121

Post by bediger4000 »

jerlam wrote: post #94
some_random wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The point of the security theater is to assuage the 95th percentile scared-of-everything crowd, they're the same people who want no guns signs in public parks.

That may have been true 25 years ago. All the rules are now mostly an annoyance and don't reassure anyone. There weren't a lot of people voicing opposition to TSA's ending of the shoes off policy earlier this year.

You're right not a lot of people objected to TSA ending the no shoes safety rule, and it's a shame. I certainly objected and tried to make my objections known, but apparently 23 or 24 years of the iconic custom of taking shoes off went to waste because the TSA decided to slack off

Re: Armed police swarm student after AI mistakes bag of Doritos for a weapon

#122

Post by dgacmu »

nickdothutton wrote: post #54

"Omnilert Gun Detect delivers instant gun detection, near-zero false positives".

If it's taking images every 30 seconds, it's getting 86400 x 30 = 2.5 million images per day per camera. So when it causes enormous, unnecessary trauma to one student per week, the company can rightfully claim it has less than a 1 in 10 million false positive rate.

(* see also "how to lie with statistics").

Re: Armed police swarm student after AI mistakes bag of Doritos for a weapon

#123

Post by mpeg »

stavros wrote: post #112
mpeg wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, at least you can choose not to wear the cargo pants. A friend of mine once got pulled aside for extra checks and questioning after he had already gone through the scanners, because he was waiting for me on the other side to walk to the gates together and the agent didn't like that he was "loitering" – guess his ethnicity...

How is it fair to say that? That's some "why did you make me hurt you"-level justification.

No, it's not.

I have shoes that I know always beep on the airport scanners, so if I choose to wear them I know it might take longer or I might have to embarrassingly take them off and put them on the tray. Or I can not wear them.

Yes, in an ideal world we should all travel without all the security theatre, but that's not the world we live in, I can't change the way airports work, but I can wear clothes that make it faster, I can put my liquids in a clear bag, I can have bags that make it easy to take out electronics, etc. Those things I can control.

But people can't change their skin color, name, or passport (well, not easily), and those are also all things you can get held up in airports for.

Re: Armed police swarm student after AI mistakes bag of Doritos for a weapon

#124

Post by JustExAWS »

proee wrote: post #120
JustExAWS wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes because I’m sure if a White female had been detected by AI of carrying a gun, it would have been treated the same way.

You have no evidence to suggest this, just bias. Unless you are aware of the AI algorithm, then it's a pointless discussion that only causes strife and conjecturing.

It’s not the AI algorithm, it’s the police response I’m questioning would be different.

Re: Armed police swarm student after AI mistakes bag of Doritos for a weapon

#125

Post by akoboldfrying »

tartoran wrote: post #88

"“We understand how upsetting this was for the individual that was searched as well as the other students who witnessed the incident,” the principal wrote. “Our counselors will provide direct support to the students who were involved.”" Make them pay money for false positives instead of direct support and counselling. This technology is not ready for production, it should be in a lab not in public buildings such as s…

> Make them pay money for false positives instead of direct support and counselling.

Agreed.

> This technology is not ready for production

No one wants stuff like this to happen, but nearly all technologies have risks. I don't consider that a single false positive outweighs all of its benefits; it would depend on the rates of false and true positives, and the (subjective) value of each (both high in this case, though I'd say preventing 1 shooting is unequivocally of more value than preventing 1 innocent person being unnecessarily held at gunpoint).

Re: Armed police swarm student after AI mistakes bag of Doritos for a weapon

#126

Post by proee »

JustExAWS wrote: post #124
proee wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have no evidence to suggest this, just bias. Unless you are aware of the AI algorithm, then it's a pointless discussion that only causes strife and conjecturing.

It’s not the AI algorithm, it’s the police response I’m questioning would be different.

How many audit the police videos have you seen on Youtube? There are an insufferable amount of "white" people getting destroyed by the cops. If you replace the "white" people in these videos with "black" then 99% of viewers would assume the cops are hardcore racist, when in fact, they are just bad cops - very bad cops, that have some deep psychological issues - probably rooted from a traumatic childhood.

Re: Armed police swarm student after AI mistakes bag of Doritos for a weapon

#128

Post by mothballed »

bilbo0s wrote: post #86
rolph wrote: post #4

Omnilert later admitted the incident was a “false positive” but claimed the system “functioned as intended,” saying its purpose is to “prioritize safety and awareness through rapid human verification.” prioritize your own safety by not attending any location fitted with such a system, or deemed to be such a dangerous environment that such a system is desired. the AI "swatted" someone.

Calling it today. This company is going to get innocent kids killed. How many packs of Twizzlers, or Doritos, or Snickers bars are out there in our schools? First time it happens, there will be an explosion of protests. Especially now that the public knows that the system isn't working but the authorities kept using it anyway. This is a really bad idea right now. The technology is just not there yet.

And then there's plenty of bullies who might put a sticker of a picture of a gun on someone's back, knowing it will set off the image recognition. It's only a matter of time until they figure that out.

Re: Armed police swarm student after AI mistakes bag of Doritos for a weapon

#129

Post by ggreer »

shaky-carrousel wrote: post #87

He could have been easily murdered. It's not the first time by a far margin that a bunch of overzealous cops murder a kid. I would never ever in my life set foot in a place that sends me armed cops so easily. That school is extremely dangerous.

I think the reason the school bought this silly software is because it's a dangerous school, and they're grasping at straws to try and fix the problem. The day after this false positive, a student was robbed.[1] Last month, a softball coach was charged with rape and possession of child pornography.[2] Last summer, one student was stabbed while getting off the bus.[3] Last year, there were two incidents where classmates stabbed each other.[4][5]

1. https://www.nottinghammd.com/2025/10/22/student-robbed-outsi...

2. https://www.si.com/high-school/maryland/baltimore-county-hig...

3. https://www.wbaltv.com/article/knife-assault-rossville-juven...

4. https://www.wbal.com/stabbing-incident-near-kenwood-high-sch...

5. https://www.cbsnews.com/baltimore/news/teen-injured-after-re...

Re: Armed police swarm student after AI mistakes bag of Doritos for a weapon

#130

Post by forgetfulness »

surgical_fire wrote: post #107
forgetfulness wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve got great news for you: there are more girls with colored hair than ever before, and we got the Synthwave revival, just try to find the right crowd and put on Timecop1983 in your headphones Cyberpunk always sucked for all but the corrupt corporate, political and military elites, so it’s all tracking

> there are more girls with colored hair than ever before The ones I see don't tend to lean cute.

Well the "hackers" jacking in to the "Hacker News" discussion board, where we talk about the oppression brought in by the corrupt AI-peddling corporations employed by the even more corrupt government, probably aren't all looking like Zero Cool, Snake Plissken, Officer K, or the like, though a bunch may be.
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