Wi-Fi-based "AI" system to detect concealed firearms has an unexpected detractor

[Euler]

Statescoop said:→

After testing the technology last spring, a Pittsburgh-area school district this week began to deploy a weapons-detection system, across all of its buildings, that uses artificial intelligence and a cutting-edge Wi-Fi sensing technology to spot guns, even if they are concealed.

Administrators at the Chartiers Valley School District, southwest of Pittsburgh, said the system will help keep students safe as they come through school entrances. District Superintendent Daniel Castagna said his district is the first to have this type of technology on campus after signing a five-year contract with the company last month.

The technology is being installed across the district’s four school buildings: two elementary schools, one middle school and one high school. The district plans to monitor two entrances per building, for a total of eight devices.

But civil liberties groups warn the new technology could normalize routine surveillance and do the opposite of protecting students. They also worry the software could misidentify threats and expose data without consent.

The technology, which the company refers to as Wi-AI (a combination of Wi-Fi and AI), was developed by CurvePoint.ai, a startup spun out of Carnegie Mellon University. The company's proprietary device hooks into existing Wi-Fi networks, and in addition sending out its own Wi-Fi signals, uses the radio waves to create a 3D field. The waves interact differently with different objects, allowing the technology to "see" through jackets, bags and other types of materials by penetrating them in search of items made of metal.
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Chad Marlow, a senior policy council at the American Civil Liberties Union, said it's not the risks to student privacy that concern him, but that weapons-detection software generally has not worked as promised in a number of recent, high-profile instances.

"This is just another attempt by a surveillance company to fleece our schools by capitalizing on their fear of an incident in schools when, in fact, they really can't do much about it," Marlow told StateScoop. "They, in fact, create a problem where one doesn't exist."

In January, an AI-powered gun detection system from the company Omnilert failed to stop a school shooting in Nashville, Tennessee. Investigators determined that the system missed the handgun the 17-year-old shooter carried into the school building because of where cameras were located. A 16-year-old girl was shot to death and another 17-year-old was injured before the shooter took his own life.

And then just last month, an Omnilert system installed at a school in Baltimore County, Maryland, falsely warned school officials and law enforcement that a student had a gun when the student only had a bag of chips. The false alert propelled local leaders to call for a review of the technology, noting that the false alarm had traumatized students.

"Weapon detection software has been an abysmal failure. It's an abysmal failure because of its false positives," Marlow said. "It puts students at risk of someone being told they have a weapon on them and are an immediate danger to everyone around them, which can elicit a response from the police that could put not only that kid, but other kids in the school in danger. On the other side, it creates a sense of false security, that a weapon will be detected when it often isn't, and even if it is detected, there's not enough time to do anything about it."
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[Bubbacs]

Student Handcuffed After AI School Security System Mistakes a Doritos Bag for a Gun 

 

 

 

[John Q Public]

We already have tech that works, it's been around for decades, they call them metal detectors. 

[bmyers]

On 11/16/2025 at 9:33 AM, John Q Public said:

We already have tech that works, it's been around for decades, they call them metal detectors. 

Yeah but they don't work on the Glock 7.

 

[John Q Public]

Well, because it's imaginary...