Featured in this episode of Chaos Lever
Move over Detroit- San Francisco is here to usher in America’s first remote-controlled murderbots! [Ed: first domestic killer robots that is.] My favorite part is where the city council voted to approve this policy, claiming that the state would mandate it regardless. So, like… maybe vote no?? Because this is terrifying?
The new rule will allow the SF police department (only in “extreme circumstances” and with “the highest levels of approvals” to basically send a bulletproof remote controlled machine gun into a situation with a license to kill. On the one hand, I’m all for keeping police safe- why risk human life when there is an alternative. But on the other hand.. I can’t be the only person concerned that the definitions of “extreme circumstances” and “highest levels of approvals” feel very … squishy?
Police violence against civilians is already, shall we say a controversial topic. The skeptic in me thinks this is not going to right that wrong- long-term, it will probably do quite the opposite. Crucially, this current approval does not permit AI-based murderbots.. Yet. Something tells me that we’re already halfway down the slippery slope towards other “extreme circumstances” though.