Can artificial intelligence prevent the next Parkland shooting?

Schools are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence-backed solutions to stop tragic acts of student violence such as the shooting at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, a year ago.

Bark Technologies, gaggle.net, and Securly Inc. are three companies that employ AI and machine learning to scan student emails, texts, documents, and in some cases, social media activity. They look for warning signs of cyber bullying, sexting, drug and alcohol use, depression, and to flag students who may pose a violent risk not only to themselves, but classmates.

When potential problems are found, and depending on the severity, school administrators, parents — and under the most extreme cases — law enforcement officials, are alerted.

In the fall of 2017, Bark ran a test pilot with 25 schools. “We found some pretty alarming issues, including a bombing and school shooting threat,” says Bark chief parent officer, Titania Jordan.

Honestly, if there had been a system like this back when I was 13, it probably would have flagged a lot of my stuff too. I was bullied to the point of being suicidal. I wrote a lot about things that were going on and yes, expressed some desire to commit violence against those who were hurting me. I never did it though because 1) I understood the difference between WRITING about violence and actually committing it and 2) I DIDN’T HAVE EASY ACCESS TO GUNS!

It’s like companies are willing to come up with all this insane bullshit in the name of “safety” just so we as a society can feel better that something is being done while still gleefully ignoring the elephant in the room.