The US company behind Tasers plans to produce stun gun-armed drones it claims will help stop school shootings.

  The US company behind Tasers, Axon, plans to produce stun gun-armed drones it claims will help stop school shootings. Axon has been working on the project for several years, and it is now seeking regulatory approval from the Federal Aviation Administration. The project also includes integrated camera networks that allow schools and businesses to share real-time access to sensors with local public safety agencies.

However, after considering a limited pilot of the project a year ago - which was only to be used by police - the company's own Artificial Intelligence ethics advisory board voted against the idea moving forward. In its own statement, the ethics board said that Axon's announcement asserting that civilian-operated drones and robots could be deployed to schools has given it "considerable pause".

The taser drone project is just one of a number of controversial ideas that Axon has been working on in recent years. In 2018, the company announced that it was developing a artificial intelligence system that would be able to predict when someone might commit a crime.