Last Thursday, Senators Elizabeth Warren and Eric Schmitt introduced a bill aimed at stirring up more competition for Pentagon contracts awarded in AI and cloud computing. Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Oracle currently dominate those contracts. "The way that the big get bigger in AI is by sucking up everyone else's data and using it to train and expand their own systems," Warren told the Washington Post. The new bill would "require a competitive award process" for contracts, which would ban the use of "no-bid" awards by the Pentagon to companies for cloud services or AI foundation models. While Big Tech is hit with antitrust investigations--including the ongoing lawsuit against Google about its dominance in search, as well as a new investigation opened into Microsoft--regulators are also accusing AI companies of, well, just straight-up lying.

"The FTC has been clear that claims about technology – including artificial intelligence – need to be backed up", said Samuel Levine, Director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection. Evolv Technology's mission is to replace metal detectors with AI weapons scanners. It claims to do this with artificial intelligence, which can actively detect concealed weapons like bombs, knives and guns. The FTC's complaint alleges the company deceptively advertised its scanners would detect "all weapons". In 2022 the BBC outlined some of the impressive claims Evolv's then CEO had made about the technology.

In February 2022, a meeting was set up between New York City mayor Eric Adams' team and an artificial intelligence gun-detection company called Evolv. An email thread from Evolv representatives included an accompanying brochure, which listed opportunities to partner together: in the Port Authority Bus Terminal, NYC schools, hospitals, and gathering places such as Times Square. One area conspicuously missing from the list, though, was the subway. After an in-person meeting a few days later, Evolv cofounder Anil Chitkara made another attempt to sell the company's technology--through name-dropping. "As I mentioned, Linda Reid, VP Security for Walt Disney World (Florida) has known us since 2014 and deployed many of our systems at the Parks and Disney Springs," Chitkara wrote in a February 7 email to the Mayor's Office, obtained by WIRED. "They've had success screening for weapons with Evolv Express … There may be some interesting parallels to how you are thinking about everyone's role in security."

SoFi Stadium, YouTube Theater and Evolv Technology, an artificial intelligence-based weapons detection security screening company, entered into a multi-year partnership to bring Evolv's threat detection technology to the venues' entries. The company did not disclose financials of the agreement. As part of the agreement, Evolv was named the "Official Weapons Detection Screening Systems Provider" for the venues, which are located at Hollywood Park, the 300-acre development being built in Inglewood by Los Angeles Rams owner and chairman Stan Kroenke. Otto Benedict, senior vice president of facility and campus operations at SoFi Stadium and Hollywood Park, said the safety and experience of guests was a key driver to the partnership. SoFi Stadium and YouTube Theater employ Evolv Express systems, which use sensor technology with artificial intelligence to provide threat detection at high volume and speed.

Have you ever gone to a sporting event and spent what seems like an eternity just trying to get in? Security technologies can slow lines down to a grinding halt, and they're not always effective – your necklace, keys, and belt may set the metal detector off, while weapons can still get through. At the FirstEnergy Stadium in Cleveland, it turns out a lot of football fans wear steel-toed boots. "Everyone who wore these boots were setting off when they were coming in," says Brandon Covert, vice president of information technology for the Cleveland Browns. The team has managed to overcome this problem with artificial intelligence, after adopting security screening technology from the company Evolv.

Experts discuss how artificial intelligence is being used to protect venues by screening for items such as bombs, guns, and knives. Artificial intelligence, or AI, is being used to help secure sites from sports arenas to churches and schools. The technology is being used to scan for weapons, including guns, knives and explosives as people walk between standing panels. If a weapon is spotted, security standing by is alerted. Massachusetts based Evolv has used the technology to scan roughly 300 million people across the country since the system went live in 2019, second only to the TSA.

When Peter George saw news of the racially motivated mass-shooting at the Tops supermarket in Buffalo last weekend, he had a thought he's often had after such tragedies. "Could our system have stopped it?" he said. But I think we could democratize security so that someone planning on hurting people can't easily go into an unsuspecting place." George is chief executive of Evolv Technology, an AI-based system meant to flag weapons, "democratizing security" so that weapons can be kept out of public places without elaborate checkpoints. As U.S. gun violence like the kind seen in Buffalo increases -- firearms sales reached record heights in 2020 and 2021 while the Gun Violence Archive reports 198 mass shootings since January -- Evolv has become increasingly popular, used at schools, stadiums, stores and other gathering spots. To its supporters, the system is a more effective and less obtrusive alternative to the age-old metal detector, making events both safer and more pleasant to attend. To its critics, however, Evolv's effectiveness has hardly been proved. And it opens up a Pandora's box of ethical issues in which convenience is paid for with RoboCop surveillance. "The idea of a kinder, gentler metal detector is a nice solution in theory to these terrible shootings," said Jay Stanley, senior policy analyst for the American Civil Liberties Union's project on speech, privacy, and technology. "But do we really want to create more ways for security to invade our privacy?

High-speed body scanners powered by advanced artificial intelligence are to be trialled across US airports and subway stations. According to The Guardian, documents filed by Evolv Technology with the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) show plans to test the new systems at Denver International airport, Los Angeles' Union Station metro and Union Station in Washington DC. Evolv's scanners use millimetre-wave radio frequencies to scan a person's body. This setup is currently used by the full-body scanners found in airports, but whereas those devices slow down the screening process, the new scanners can finish their work in a fraction of a second. This means individuals can simply walk through the gate without having to stop.

A startup bankrolled by Bill Gates is about to conduct the first public trials of high-speed body scanners powered by artificial intelligence (AI), the Guardian can reveal. According to documents filed with the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Boston-based Evolv Technology is planning to test its system at Union Station in Washington DC, in Los Angeles's Union Station metro and at Denver international airport. Evolv uses the same millimetre-wave radio frequencies as the controversial, and painfully slow, body scanners now found at many airport security checkpoints. However, the new device can complete its scan in a fraction of second, using computer vision and machine learning to spot guns and bombs. This means passengers can simply walk through a scanning gate without stopping or even slowing down – like the hi-tech scanners seen in the 1990 sci-fi film Total Recall.

A startup bankrolled by Bill Gates is about to conduct the first public trials of high-speed body scanners powered by artificial intelligence (AI), the Guardian can reveal. According to documents filed with the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Boston-based Evolv Technology is planning to test its system at Union Station in Washington DC, in Los Angeles's Union Station metro and at Denver international airport. Evolv uses the same millimetre-wave radio frequencies as the controversial, and painfully slow, body scanners now found at many airport security checkpoints. However, the new device can complete its scan in a fraction of second, using computer vision and machine learning to spot guns and bombs. Homeland Security: 'be patient' as airport lines reach extreme lengths This means passengers can simply walk through a scanning gate without stopping or even slowing down – like the hi-tech scanners seen in the 1990 sci-fi film Total Recall.