Florida Senator Blaise Ingoglia, a top ally to the governor, filed a new bill Monday criminally punishing Floridians who use artificial intelligence systems to detect firearms in most public areas.
Ingoglia, a potential candidate for Chief Financial Officer, filed SB 562 weeks after Daytona Beach voted to buy artificial intelligence (AI) software designed to equip dozens of city-wide cameras with gun-detection capabilities. Ingoglia argues that the software violates the Second and Fourth Amendments, which protect the right to bear arms and shield against unlawful searches.
"Utilizing AI to detect whether a law-abiding citizen is carrying a concealed firearm is nothing but a technological infringement upon both our 2nd and 4th Amendment rights," the Spring Hill Republican posted to social media Monday morning. "We should NOT give up our rights because of technological advances."
His bill makes it a first-degree misdemeanor to use or include AI with any "camera, video recording, or live-streaming device" to detect firearms in public. The bill would not apply to places that already ban concealed firearms, such as schools, courthouses, or detention facilities.
A former Chair of the GOP, Ingoglia filed SB 562 two weeks after Daytona Beach city commissioners decided to buy enough of the Zero Eyes Software for 25 public cameras. According to the Daytona Beach News-Journal, the coastal city will enter into a yearly contract with the Pennsylvania company and pay them $15,000 per year. A federal block grant worth $60,500 from the Department of Justice will cover the expense.
What does the software company think of the bill?
Zero Eyes co-founder Sam Alaimo told The Floridian via phone that he anticipates talking with Ingoglia to pursue a more "common-sense" approach, hoping that the Legislature would keep Florida open to having gun-detection software implemented.
"In the past week, we've had multiple arrests in major cities for people brandishing weapons where they should not be," Alaimo said, noting that his company's software has allowed for arrests outside an elementary school, a subway platform, and in parking lots. "Anyone who says we cannot do this at scale and do this effectively is mistaken."
Zero Eyes Software, founded after the 2018 Parkland shooting, only identifies guns out in the open—not concealed firearms or weapons in a holster, Alaimo said. He added that his company has helped with dozens of arrests nationwide and is used across 42 states.
"Our software says, 'I think it's a gun,' and that still-frame image will be sent to our operating center in Philadelphia," continued Alaimo, a Navy SEAL veteran. "We then have a human in the loop who verifies [it's an illegal weapon]. We then dispatch it to the local law enforcement and to the institution itself in about three to five seconds."
Daytona Beach would be the first Florida city to publicly use the AI gun-detection software in public areas, though Alaimo said his company partners with other commercial businesses in Florida who prefer not to share that they use the software. Several school districts in the state, however, already use detection technology to monitor for firearms on school campuses. Ingoglia’s bill would not affect those school districts.
An identical bill was filed in the state House by Rep. Monique Miller. The session begins March 4.
