Why We Believe Evolv Express Is Not Actually Intelligent

While Evolv prominently markets "AI" (Artificial Intelligence), we do not believe Evolv Express is actually intelligent because it struggles to differentiate small knives from cell phones and guns from laptops, capabilities that we believe are basic to being an "intelligent" weapons detector.

Evolv routinely disparages its "metal detector" competitors, but Evolv's newest setting, released to deal with the problem of false alarms detecting knives as cell phones, shows how it has deceived the public and competes unfairly against rivals, causing public schools to spend far more on its systems than rivals.

Fundamental Problems

Evolv cannot differentiate properly between cell phones and smaller knives, as the example we obtained from Evolv's own documentation shows:

This feature [Modified Sensitivity] helps to reduce false alarms when items such as cell phones are held up above five feet. [See Evolv New Setting Contradicts Marketing, Creates Security Risk, Addressing Cellphone False Alarms]

Evolv was able to hide this problem until multiple stabbings at Evolv sites and IPVM disclosed NCS4 test results. Afterward, Evolv released new higher sensitivity modes (similar to metal detectors) that reduced missing knives but increased false alarms on phones.

This creates an unintelligent combination where Evolv's sensitivity slider on lower settings correctly alarms on guns but falsely on many laptops, plus missing smaller knives, while at higher settings, it starts falsely alarming on many cell phones:

Whatever "AI" Evolv claims, the real-world practical result is that it is not actually intelligent, just like its far lower-cost competitors who have and admit these same issues.

Evolv has fought, for years, to hide these very fundamental facts, claiming that publicizing such information, rather than the fundamental flaws of the product Evolv sells, would harm the public.

Evolv Assured Opposite

Evolv assured the public and its investors for years that it could solve these fundamental problems of metal detectors.

In June 2021, Evolv's executives declared how "awful" its competitors were at finding weapons:

Nobody wants to stand in a line anymore, and certainly nobody wants anyone touching their belongings, which is traditionally the only technology available to make venues safe, was a metal detector that's really, really good at finding metal but awful at finding weapons. [emphasis added]

Simultaneously, Evolv pledged to investors that it only alerts when someone has a weapon:

That's the thing that's so just that's so disruptive about Evolv, is it can tell the difference between a knife and keys between a gun and a cell phone and it only alerts when it someone has a weapon. [emphasis added]

Indeed, Evolv's Chief Scientist assured the public that the use of AI allowed them to differentiate a "cell phone" from "threats":

By applying AI technology, these patterns of metal content and shape can help identify what the object is – a cell phone, a set of keys, or the like. By differentiating between benign objects and threats, there’s no need for people to empty their pockets or bags. [emphasis added]

Tuning Tradeoff, Not Actual Intelligence

Evolv's "abilities" fundamentally rely on simplistic sensitivity tuning (their slider from A to now G) rather than actual intelligence. This is something IPVM was able to recreate by buying, testing, and tuning Evolv's conventional competitors.

Be Truthful

If Evolv or other companies want to sell products that miss smaller weapons for the benefit of convenience (not emptying bags or taking out cell phones) so that larger weapons might still be alarmed and smaller ones missed, they should do so, truthfully, fairly, and publicly.

Providing such an option is reasonable; deceiving that it does more is not.

However, Evolv has used "AI" to justify selling a product for 10x or more than its competitors, which increasingly is being revealed, by Evolv's own admissions, to suffer the same fundamental problems.

Evolv's Response

We previewed our concerns about Evolv's actual intelligence including problems with cell phones and laptops. Evolv responded, copied verbatim:

Evolv utilizes an AI-trained algorithm to optimize detection performance. AI is a smart and adaptive technology as we’ve seen across different use cases, and we will continue to leverage the capabilities enabled by AI to improve performance across all the verticals we serve. In addition, the collective expertise of the Evolv team – with professional experience that includes the U.S. Secret Service, FBI, DHS, TSA and CIA – has shaped Evolv Express into a cutting-edge AI-based innovation that offers a deeper level of safety without the intrusiveness of alternative options. As with all technologies, our goal is to iterate, innovate and improve our solutions.

Evolv declined to elaborate about its "AI-trained algorithm."

UPDATE March 2024

See: Evolv Supports Missing Guns To Reduce False Alarms. This information further supports our belief that Evolv is not actually intelligent.

While Evolv marketed "weapons-free zones" with "touchless," "frictionless" screening, claiming unprecedented convenience and security that, privately, Evolv knew it could not deliver.

Watch the video below, excerpted from Evolv's own presentation, showing how Evolv deliberately misses guns to reduce its significant false alert problems: