WARNING: This article contains major spoilers for Spider-Man: Far From Home, in theaters now.
In Spider-Man: Far From Home, Peter Parker struggles to come to terms with Tony Stark's death and the complicated legacy he left behind. When Nick Fury hands Peter a pair of Tony's enhanced sunglasses with dangerous AI tech, Stark's legacy took physical form. Like most of Tony's creations, the sunglasses represent the former Avenger in both his virtues and flaws. By handing Peter an advanced AI weapons system, Tony proved yet again how dangerous his creations can be when they fall into the wrong hands.
Like Jarvis and Friday, the AI in Tony's sunglasses has a nickname: EDITH, or Even Dead, I'm the Hero. Though Far From Home didn't really delve into the specifics, EDITH controls a weapons system connected to a satellite that houses drones. Following voice commands, EDITH can deploy drones to take out targets. Indeed, Peter accidentally sent one such drone after his classmate Brad Davis, his rival for MJ's affections, just by mentioning him as a threat.
What's more, the EDITH tech in the sunglasses auto-identifies everyone in its immediate vicinity. When Peter put them on for the first time, it recognized and tagged everyone on the bus -- with the exception of the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent bus driver, of course. As if that weren't enough, each person had their own blurb containing a rundown of their digital footprint.
EDITH enabled Peter to see the last text each person sent. In fact, he even used the AI to go into Brad's phone to erase a compromising photo of himself, which means he has full access to other people's smart phones. In that sense alone, EDITH is a privacy nightmare; almost no cell phone is safe in the wake of this advanced Stark tech.
In this sense, EDITH feels like a small-scale version of another advanced weapons system in the Marvel Cinematic Universe: Project Insight. In Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Steve Rogers fought tooth and nail to prevent a similar system from going online. Of course, Project Insight was intended to wipe out anyone who opposed Hydra or its fascist ideals, but its methods were similar to EDITH. It could auto-identify targets from great distances and eliminate them discreetly. Where EDITH uses drones, Project Insight used S.H.I.E.L.D.-crafted helicarriers -- until Cap destroyed them, anyway.
Naturally, the major difference between the two systems is intent. Project Insight was designed to subdue through force, while EDITH is meant to act more as a security blanket, in that it's used to take down targets deemed as threats by a "good" agent. However, both of them are tools; in the wrong hands, either one can be a threat. Peter learned that hard way in Far From Home when Mysterio uses it to attack London in an attempt to convince the world at large he is a hero.
Judging by EDITH's acronym, Tony created it as a fail-safe in the event of his untimely death. He entrusted it to someone he cared about -- indeed, a hero who takes "great responsibility" pretty seriously -- so that Iron Man would live on as an idea long after he was gone. Though his intention was good, he fell into a familiar trap: just because he can make it, doesn't mean he should. The creation of EDITH and its subsequent use by Mysterio calls back to Iron Monger's line from the first Iron Man film: "How ironic, Tony! Trying to rid the world of weapons, you gave it its best one ever!"
Of course, since Iron Man is dead, Peter is left behind to pick up the pieces of this well-intentioned mistake. Ultimately, EDITH radically altered the course of his life. Once Mysterio got hold of the tech, he used it to not only achieve his own ends, but to create some contingency plans. One such plan saw the drones record his final confrontation with Spider-Man, who wasn't wearing his mask at the time. Between EDITH and the BARF hologram technology from Captain America: Civil War, Quentin Beck and his team manipulated the footage to make it look as though Peter killed Mysterio in cold blood.
On an even worse note, Mysterio used EDITH to out Peter's identity to the world. When he died, he had a member of his team upload the manipulated footage online. Unfortunately for Peter and his friends,The Daily Bugle received the footage, and J.K. Simmons' J. Jonah Jameson immediately used it to stir public outrage against Peter Parker by name. Though he didn't mean to, Tony created the tech that would go on to reveal Peter Parker's secret identity to the world.
Tony Stark's legacy is complicated. Though he became a hero for the last 10 years of his life, his company and the technology he created were used for vile purposes. In Far From Home, this is a fact he could not escape even in death. In the form of EDITH and -- to an extent -- Quentin Beck, this legacy eventually circled back to hurt someone Tony loved. Nevertheless, the good he has done will always be preserved through the hero Peter has become.
Now in theaters, director Jon Watts’ Spider-Man: Far From Home stars Tom Holland, Samuel L. Jackson, Zendaya, Cobie Smulders, Jon Favreau, JB Smoove, Jacob Batalon and Martin Starr, with Marisa Tomei and Jake Gyllenhaal.