A ‘dystopian’ AI bodyguard is here to keep women safe — and it’s always watching

There’s a new development in the world of women’s safety (Picture: Getty Images)

On October 12, 2021, on a well-lit street in Soho, four men circled Ina Jovicic.

As the group attempted to mug the 28-year-old, she fought back, before they dragged her into the road, and left her to bleed.

Ina called 999, and said she was told two things by police — ‘you’re lucky you weren’t stabbed’ and ‘you should never fight back.’

During conversations with officers, Ina says her ordeal was being ‘normalised’.

She tells Metro: ‘The fact they have a lot of cases each day doesn’t mean that it’s normal.

‘It made me so angry and became this internal fuel that I wanted to do something about it.’

The badge clips on to your clothing and acts as surveillance (Picture: eNOugh)

Five years on, after securing more than £2million in funding from US-based private investors, Ina has created the eNO badge, described as the first wearable AI bodyguard for women.

How does the eNO badge work?

Three years after founding eNOugh, alongside co-founders Gaelic and Alex, the eNO badge, in partnership with Ask for Angela, is ready for release.

‘I clip it on, the badge sits there, it’s monitoring, so it’s watching, hearing and sensing motion,’ Ina says.

‘So if it sees anything out of ordinary, hears anything that’s a threat, or if you’re getting dragged or pulled, it will vibrate for a second to give you a sign it’s recognised the danger and it’s taking care of you.’

It listens for changes in volume, pitch, emotion in the voice, the structure of the sentence and for keywords. Phrases like ‘give me your wallet’ are triggers, while its video can recognise objects like knives.

Ina is passionate about women’s safety after being attacked on the streets of London (Picture: eNOugh)

The badge responds to motion by detecting sudden altitude changes, similar to fall detection software for the elderly. You can also set up a designated safe word which will trigger an emergency, too.

It then shares your live location and a live stream to a human operated alarm receiving centre, where someone will determine if the alert is an emergency. They will then escalate it to the police who can respond in real time.

‘Officers will respond already knowing what the situation is, they have the evidence and they know your name,’ she adds. ‘The operator can also speak through the badge to the criminal to de-escalate the situation.’

Ina worked with criminal psychologists who believed offenders would be more likely to ‘abort’ the attack this way.

All footage that’s stored on an encrypted cloud can then only be accessed by law enforcement.

How much does it cost?

It’s priced at £169 upfront, followed by a £14.99 monthly subscription fee. You can join the waitlist now, and the first bodyguards will be released at the end of October.

There are also plans to make it more affordable for those who are more vulnerable.

ENOugh is working with universities to offer the badge at a discounted rate — of the 739,000 women who were sexually assaulted (including attempts) from 2024 to 2025, ONS figures show a higher proportion were full-time students.

ENOugh also hopes to speak with the NHS to offer them to female staffers who finish their healthcare shifts at late hours.

Liv reported being followed and threatened by a man in February (Picture: Liv Nevill)

Liv Nevill has joined forces with eNO to promote the device. She was threatened by a man earlier this year.

After being followed, she sought safety in a Co-op, but the man waited outside. She told staff she was being followed, but claims the he then came into the supermarket, threatening her with sexual violence.

She told Metro: ‘All I could think was why have I been the one that’s chosen and targeted.

‘I ran to the back of the shop, but I could see he was looking for me between the aisles, shouting “I need to find her”,’ she recalled.

Liv says it’s an ‘honour’ to be working with a company trying to keep women safe.

Worried about AI?

There’s been a slew of warnings about AI, including from a former Anthropic employee, who said it ‘could kill all humans’ within the next decade.

James Vincent, director of Digital Resistance, which aims to protect people from AI threats, says he sees the ‘potential benefit’ of this device.

‘If someone is genuinely in danger and technology can recognise that situation, intervene and get them help more quickly, then that’s a very interesting use of AI,’ he tells Metro.

But James does worry there’s ‘something slightly dystopian’ about wearing what he calls an ‘Alexa-style’ device.

He wants to make sure that if we’re going to trust AI with something as serious as our personal safety, the threshold for transparency, testing and accuracy is incredibly high.

And Ina agrees. ‘We have to be insanely cautious, but in this case AI is being used for good to do something we couldn’t as humans.

The badge will vibrate if it realises there’s danger (Picture: eNOugh)

‘We found that we’ve always relied on humans in danger to be able to act, but these are unrealistic expectations when you’re in the highest fight-or-flight panic mode.’

James adds that if this technology can help protect women ‘that’s fantastic’ but he doesn’t want tech to distract us from tackling the wider societal that make such technology necessary.

‘AI should support human safety, not become an excuse to avoid addressing the problems that threaten it,’ he adds.

During a week where shocking crimes against women and girls have dominated the news cycle, it’s likely this kind of tech will be a comfort for many.

Bath University recently announced increased security in nightclubs while investigating rumours members of its rugby club planned to spike female students in Freshers week.

And, in the USA, shocking news has emerged of the ‘Cornell Seven’, a group of male Ivy League students who allegedly drugged a woman and sexually assaulted her for hours.

Ina concludes with a simple message: ‘We want to keep everyone’s daughters, partners and loved ones safe.’

Do you have a story you’d like to share? Get in touch by emailing MetroLifestyleTeam@metro.co.uk

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