Police robots that can kill are OK’d by San Francisco supervisors

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https://www.dailynews.com/2022/11/30/san-francisco-supervisors-vote-to-allow-police-to-use-robots-to-kill/

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted 8-3 Tuesday night to approve a controversial policy that would allow police to deploy robots capable of using lethal force in extraordinary circumstances, according to multiple reports…

“There could be an extraordinary circumstance where, in a virtually unimaginable emergency, they might want to deploy lethal force to render, in some horrific situation, somebody from being able to cause further harm,”..

“There is serious potential for misuse and abuse of this military-grade technology, and zero showing of necessity,” ..

* Things usually start with ‘extraordinary circumstance’ and slide to usage in ‘normal circumstance’.

* Asimove’s 3 laws of robotics :

First Law
A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

Second Law
A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.

Third Law
A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

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Sky

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Nothing good will ever accrue from San Francisco’s decision. Providing a largely ignorant, paramilitary force with a disconnected, arm’s-length approach to kill or injure people is a seminal, egregiously dangerous turning point. We are crossing our own Rubicon.

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DriftyDonN, Sky

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They have tried to reassure the public by saying that the killer robots will not be equipped with guns but will instead be equipped with explosives. Because killing everyone in the vicinity is apparently better than the (already horrific) killing of specific people. Isn’t that reassuring…

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wavy, Alex5723

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Boston Dynamics have been leading the technology for years both for military and civil use. The PR will be as expected (cynical)..’1st arrest by a robot with no injuries’ to deliver a false sense of civil security but it doesn’t bear thinking about when something goes wrong.
Reads selfish but I’m happy I don’t live there..good luck with that!

Win8.1/R2 Hybrid lives on..

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Mr. Austin

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Okay folks this is a bit beyond normal tech

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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access-mdb

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Susan, with respect to you since you own this joint, which things about computing tech are normal these days? This is a whole new world of computer technologies.

For example, I remember the jokes about Microsoft when they decided they’d install their software in some automotive marques:  In order to reboot Microsoft automotive software we’d joke that you had to roll down the windows of the car, while simultaneously turning off the ignition key. To reboot/restart the car, you’d open the driver’s door. Then close it, and simultaneously turn on the ignition, while rolling the windows back up.

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Technology that the average person will come in contact with.  That is my definition.  And has been pointed out San Francisco went back on their decision.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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It has been done already in 2016.

Dallas deployment of robot bomb to kill suspect is “without precedent”

Early Friday morning, after being attacked by gunmen who had already killed five police officers and injured several other officers along with two civilians in the wake of a protest, the Dallas Police Department deployed a bomb disposal robot.
However, the robot was not used to disarm a bomb. This time, it was used to deliver the bomb that killed one of the shooters—likely an unprecedented move in American policing.

For now, it remains unknown exactly what type of robot or what kind of explosive was used. Authorities have named the dead shooter as Micah Xavier Johnson, a 25-year-old Army veteran from a nearby suburb.

Experts believe this is the first time a robot-delivered bomb was used to take out an active shooter by law enforcement in the United States. The death of Johnson raises new questions about the appropriate limits of drone technology outside of the theater of an overseas war…

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Mr. Austin

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Got to hope that system never has a CVE vulnerability (as in never connects to a network and uses an umbilical connection) – imaging trying to prosecute an agent of a hostile power in a foreign country for remotely using a law enforcement robot to keep the killing going. It might not be possible for the robot to travel far enough for an assassination, but turning around and taking out the officers setting it up having been “possessed” during a previous outing might become possible as the product ages.

As to the “beyond normal tech” – I think that’s the problem – the beyond is being removed from that statement by putting that facility in the public arena.

 

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Mr. Austin

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https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-63883235

San Francisco has reversed its decision to authorise police to use robots equipped with lethal weapons…

unusual that common sense prevails, welcome news nevertheless.

Win8.1/R2 Hybrid lives on..

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Sky, Alex5723, JohnW

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