ST. GEORGE — The Utah State Board of Education purchase of an artificial intelligence gun detection program for Utah schools has raised a simple but important question: Does it work?

In short, Mike Lahiff, the chief executive officer for the program ZeroEyes, told St. George News the program is highly effective because of one key element.

“You need that human in the loop. That is key,” he said. “You can’t rely on AI for everything.”

State board member Kristan Norton said the $3 million purchase was necessitated by legislative action — specifically HB 61 — “School Safety Requirements.” The bill calls for the implementation of the School Security Task Force, threat assessments and other security measures.

She said the Legislature appropriated $12 million for the initiative, $3 million for the AI program and $9 million for grants to have the program implemented at campuses.

Aegix has teamed up with ZeroEyes, which has the official stamp of approval from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security under the Security Safety Act.

“From the state and local level to the family level, people are looking for a change, looking for something that can help,” Lahiff said as he explained the “humble beginnings” of this program with four other former military men in his garage in 2018.

“Just seemed like every time I turned on the news, there was another school shooting. Nothing’s really changed since Columbine in 1999,” he said. “I was racking my brain of stuff I could do to help.”

He said because he was a Navy Seal for over 10 years, he wanted to do something to reduce the number of mass shootings. In fact, Lahiff dropped out of college after 9/11 happened to enlist in the Navy. He retired in 2013.

It was while sitting in his oldest daughter’s school, waiting for a sports practice to end that he was enlightened.

“I noticed about every 20 feet there was a security camera,” totaling about 200 cameras, he said.

Lahiff said he then went and talked to the security guard on duty and learned they were used more for “post-incident” investigation and response, not prevention.

“I asked the security guard that was there, ‘Who was watching the cameras?’ and he literally laughed and said, ‘No one’s looking at them,'” he said.

That is when he thought, “What if someone was watching the cameras and could send an emergency alert if a gun was detected?” That person could send more information to first responders to improve situational awareness such as the description of a shooter, firearm and location.

Lahiff with the other four cofounders, all former military, began to test the program at Rancocas Valley High School in New Jersey. Using realistic-looking, fake guns, the situation was reported within seconds.

Now the company is going into its sixth year with hundreds of customers and thousands of buildings in 47 states under their program.

The program uses AI to identify partially or fully revealed guns. As soon as an object in the shape of a firearm is detected, it sends alerts and images to a weapons expert at one of two monitoring centers — Philadelphia or Hawaii. The expert then determines if the item detected is actually a firearm, relaying the alert to the local 911 system or canceling it.

“We are looking to shift the timeline of these events and to save lives,” he said.

Military veterans make up 80% of the experts and are on duty 24 hours a day, seven days a week and 365 days a year, he added.

Lahiff said by hiring veterans, the company is helping them transition from active duty to normal societal jobs. And because veterans have backgrounds in high-stress, high-pressure situations, they have the capability to remain calm.

“Veterans are looking for that next mission, they want to be a part of that team environment,” he said. “What better thing than be on a mission that mitigates and stops gun violence in the United States, to save lives?”

Lahiff said concerns about the reliability of AI programs should not be a public concern.

The term “AI” falls under a huge umbrella domain. He said that “Generative AI” is an app that people use to develop stories and pictures. This is not the same AI used for detecting guns.  It is only looking at camera feeds to locate objects in the shape of a gun and nothing else.

“It is not collecting biometric information such as facial recognition does,” he said. “It is not categorizing people and putting them on a list. It literally is just looking for an object.”

Washington County School District Communications Director Steve Dunham said the district does not plan to pursue this measure currently.

And Iron County School District Communications Director Shauna Lund added: “At this time, AI weapon detection is not in the immediate future. Like many districts, we are assessing its benefits in conjunction with costs.”

Lahiff said the program is not “the end all, be all.” He said good security comes in layers and this technology is just one layer.

“At the end of the day, we want to stop and mitigate gun violence as much as possible,” Lahiff said.

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