Tech firm CEO's far-right past exposes flaws in artificial intelligence policing - Coda Story

The sudden suspension of a controversial multi-million dollar surveillance system used by several government agencies in Utah has opened up a debate about the lack of oversight for artificial intelligence systems in law enforcement. Last week, the Utah Attorney General's office suspended a $20.7 million contract with Banjo -- a technology firm using government surveillance data to develop crime detection software -- following revelations of the founder's past membership of a white supremacist group. Damien Patton, who serves as CEO of the SoftBank-backed company, was reportedly an active member of the Ku Klux Klan as a teenager, and participated in a 1990 drive-by shooting of a synagogue in suburban Nashville, according to the tech blog OneZero. In a statement, a spokesperson for Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes said the office would be moving forward an already planned third-party audit of the software to "address issues like data privacy and possible bias." Reyes recommended that other state agencies do the same.