Axon Announces Three New Members to AI Ethics Board

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Mar 17, 2020, 07:30 ET

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., March 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Axon (Nasdaq: AAXN), the global leader in connected public safety technologies, announced today the appointment of three new members to its AI Ethics Board. The board was established in April 2018 to guide the responsible development and use of AI-powered technologies being developed by Axon.

"Our new AI Ethics Board members bring a wealth of knowledge and experience including privacy, social justice, and some of the most directly relevant core science and applied machine learning topics such as deepfake and image manipulation detection. I'm so grateful to have their advice and perspective, and am excited to be adding their diverse viewpoints and expertise to the Board," says Axon Chief Product Officer and Executive Vice President of Software Jeff Kunins. "We're committed to being transparent and responsible in how we develop and use AI and related technologies in our products for public safety, and our AI Ethics Board plays an important role in guiding our work."

The newest member appointments to Axon's AI Ethics Board include the following:

Wael Abd-Almageed
Dr. Abd-Almageed is a Research Associate Professor at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and a research Team Leader and Supervising Computer Scientist with the Information Sciences Institute, both of which are units of USC Viterbi School of Engineering. His research interests include representation learning, debiasing and fair representations, multimedia forensics and visual misinformation (including deepfake and image manipulation detection) and biometrics. Prior to joining ISI, Dr. Abd-Almageed was a research scientist with the University of Maryland at College Park, where he lead several research efforts for various NSF, DARPA and IARPA programs. He obtained his Ph.D. with Distinction from the University of New Mexico in 2003 where he was also awarded the Outstanding Graduate Student award. He has two patents and over 70 publications in top computer vision and high performance computing conferences and journals. Dr. Almageed is the recipient of 2019 USC Information Sciences Institute Achievement Award.

Danielle Citron
Danielle Citron is a Professor of Law at the Boston University School of Law where she teaches and writes about information privacy, free expression, and civil rights. She was named a MacArthur Fellow in 2019. Professor Citron is the Vice President of the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative and sits on the Board of Electronic Privacy Information and the Future of Privacy. Professor Citron advises federal and state legislators, law enforcement, and international lawmakers on privacy issues. She has presented her research more than 300 times, including to federal agencies, meetings of the National Association of Attorneys General, the National Holocaust Museum, the Anti-Defamation League, Wikimedia Foundation, universities, companies and think tanks.

Chris Harris
Chris Harris is a native Texan and passionate advocate working to transform the criminal justice system. He currently serves as a Campaign Coordinator for Texas Appleseed, a public interest nonprofit that promotes social and economic justice for all Texans, and as a Public Safety Commissioner representing District 1 in the City of Austin. Chris has led and contributed to winning campaigns aimed at limiting: racial disparities in the criminal justice system, state violence, unnecessary arrests, ICE detentions, pre-trial incarceration, subpar indigent defense and further investment in police and prisons. Chris is an alumni of Austin College where he studied political science and international relations. Previously, Chris worked in the software industry with a focus on public sector solutions and held various roles, including analyst, consultant, and product manager.

The Board and its subcommittees meet regularly to discuss ethical implications of AI-powered technologies being developed by Axon. So far, the Board has published 2 reports that offer guidance and recommendations on technologies: Face Recognition and Automated License Plate Readers (ALPRs).

To learn more about Axon's AI Ethics Board, please visit www.axon.com/Ethics.

About Axon

Axon is a network of devices, apps and people that helps public safety personnel become smarter and safer. With a mission of protecting life, our technologies give customers the confidence, focus and time they need to keep their communities safe. Our products impact every aspect of a public safety officer's day-to-day experience.

We work hard for those who put themselves in harm's way for all of us. To date, there are more than 465,200 software seats booked on the Axon network around the world and more than 225,000 lives and countless dollars have been saved with the Axon network of devices, apps and people. Learn more at www.axon.com or by calling (800) 978-2737.

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