AI Gone Wrong: Black Teen Handcuffed at Gunpoint After Mistakenly Identifying Snacks as a Weapon at School

An artificial intelligence detector misidentified a bag of chips carried by a 16-year-old student as a weapon, leading to a false alarm that summoned police and resulted in his being handcuffed. Taki Allen, a pupil at Kenwood High School in Baltimore, Maryland, recounted to the media that he was enjoying a snack with friends after football practice on October 20 when he was suddenly encircled by police vehicles, with officers drawing their weapons and ordering him to the ground. “They arrived in a swarm, and I was bewildered until I realized they were confronting me,” Allen recounted. “I was on my knees, hands restrained, before they confirmed I was unarmed.” Authorities showed Allen a photo taken by the AI system that mistakenly identified his Doritos bag as a firearm. “They claimed my grip made it appear gun-like,” he noted, expressing his shock and fear during the incident, which left him anxious about returning to school.