According to Business Insider, two 19-year-old MIT dropouts just raised $2.7 million in seed funding for their AI policing startup Code Four. CEO George Cheng and CTO Dylan Nguyen dropped out as freshmen to build the company through Y Combinator. Their technology uses AI to generate police reports from bodycam footage that can be used in court or for record-keeping. Code Four already works with 25 police departments and charges $30 per officer per month via subscription. AME Cloud Ventures led the funding round with participation from Pathlight Ventures and Webb Investment Network. The founders plan to use the money to grow their four-person team split between engineering and sales.
The police AI business model
Here’s the thing about Code Four’s approach – they’re targeting a market that’s notoriously slow to adopt new technology but desperately needs efficiency improvements. At $30 per officer monthly, the math gets interesting pretty quickly. A medium-sized police department with 100 officers would pay $36,000 annually. That’s not nothing for cash-strapped municipal budgets, but if it actually saves officers significant time on paperwork, the ROI argument becomes compelling.
And let’s be real – police departments are drowning in paperwork and bodycam footage management. The promise of AI automatically generating reports, redacting footage for public records requests, and creating transcripts could be genuinely transformative. But here’s the billion-dollar question: How accurate is this AI-generated content when it comes to legal proceedings? Cheng says officers review and edit the drafts for accuracy, which is crucial since these reports can end up in court.
Young founders, big ambitions
It’s wild that these founders are only 19 and already dropped out of MIT to chase this. They met in high school on the science fair circuit, which tells you something about their background. Now they’re navigating the complex world of government contracts and police technology procurement. That’s not exactly beginner-level stuff.
What’s really interesting is their positioning. They named the company “Code Four” – police lingo for “situation under control” – which shows they’re trying to speak the language of their customers. And their plan to join the Palantir Startup Fellowship next year? That’s a pretty clear signal about the kind of government-tech trajectory they’re aiming for. Palantir has made billions in that space, so the mentorship could be invaluable.
The AI policing concerns
Look, anytime you mix AI and policing, you’re walking into a minefield of ethical concerns. We’ve seen plenty of examples where technology promised to help law enforcement but created new problems. Facial recognition biases, predictive policing algorithms that reinforce existing patterns – the track record isn’t great.
Code Four seems aware of these concerns. They’re positioning their tech as an administrative tool rather than something that makes judgment calls. But still, when AI is generating reports that could be used as evidence, the stakes are incredibly high. A single error could mean someone’s freedom is on the line. The founders say officers review everything, but will that actually happen consistently when departments are stretched thin?
The government tech opportunity
Basically, Cheng and Nguyen are betting that government and public safety sectors represent a massive untapped market for AI efficiency tools. They’re not wrong – these organizations often operate with legacy systems and processes that haven’t been updated in decades. The potential for improvement is enormous.
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So will these 19-year-olds succeed where many have struggled? They’ve got funding, early traction, and they’re solving a real pain point. But navigating the complex world of law enforcement technology procurement while managing the ethical implications of AI in policing? That’s one hell of a challenge for anyone, let alone college dropouts.
