Dec. 8, 2022 - Epoch Times
19:31
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| This right here is a prototype of a military-grade killer robot. | |
| And if you happen to have visited the internet over the past few years, then you've likely seen many videos of robots just like this one here being developed by both scientists as well as engineers from across the entire country. | |
| There are videos of these robots being able to identify targets, to shoot guns, to jump over obstacles, to fight back against attackers, to get back up after getting knocked down, and so on and so forth. | |
| And these prototype robots are being developed in all shapes and sizes as well, such as humanoids, dog-looking ones, as well as ones that look like tanks. | |
| However, if you happen to be among the millions of Americans who've watched films like The Terminator, like Blade Runner, iRobot, Robocop, 2001 A Space Odyssey, or about a hundred other films, then as you're watching these prototype videos of real-life killer robots, well, then you're probably just like me. | |
| You're yelling at your phone, screaming, why in the world are you doing this? | |
| But the silver lining here has been for a long time now that it seems like a far-off threat that's well into the distance, something that might happen 50 years from now, but thankfully not today. | |
| However, it looks like that might be changing. | |
| A killer robot might soon be teamed up with a cop near you. | |
| What do I mean by that? | |
| Well, let's take a look at the example happening right now within the state of California. | |
| You see, last year, the California State Legislature passed into law something known as California Assembly Bill 481. | |
| You can see it up on screen for yourself. | |
| This new law requires all police departments within the state of California to conduct an inventory of all military-grade weapons in their possession within their police departments. | |
| It requires the different police departments to lay out very specific policy instructions on how their officers can use this equipment. | |
| And then on top of that... | |
| It also requires the different police departments within, again, the entire state to resubmit these documents for approval every single year in order to continue to get permission to use their equipment. | |
| Meaning that all the different county, municipal, and city-level police departments within the state of California have to put together their inventory lists, their policy directives, and they have to resubmit them to the state every single year for approval. | |
| And so, the different cities in California have been scrambling to put these documents together in order to comply with this new state-level law. | |
| And along that line, on November the 29th, which was just last week, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors received, voted on, and then approved the SFPDs, which is the San Francisco Police Department's Law Enforcement Equipment Policy. | |
| You can see it up on screen for yourself. | |
| Now most of this policy is pretty standard, and it's exactly what you'd expect from a police department, except for one very important aspect. | |
| You see, part of the San Francisco police policy includes language that will allow the police department, meaning the SFPD, to utilize what they call human-controlled robots, some of which have the capacity to use deadly force. | |
| In fact, according to the inventory sheet included in this policy directive, the SFPD already has 17 of these robots on hand. | |
| These include one iRobot First Look, one Recon Scout Throbot, one Kinetic Talon, as well as two Remotech RONs. | |
| And just by looking at them, you can tell, especially with the first three, they appear to be designed for things like reconnaissance as well as bomb disposal. | |
| However, all these robots, even the ones that look rather innocuous, they can all have explosives strapped to them in order to make them into offensive weapons. | |
| Meaning that despite the fact that they don't look as frightening as the robots that we looked at earlier, the ones who can walk around and shoot guns, they can still be used to kill. | |
| Now, in terms of when these robots, including the killer robots, can be used in the field within San Francisco, well, here's what the policy document states. | |
| Quote, We'll use the robots against anyone who doesn't smash that like button as well as all those who don't subscribe. | |
| Now, of course, I am just kidding about that, although I think you should smash that like and that subscribe button in order to avoid these killer robots. | |
| Regardless, though, getting back to what the policy actually says, here's when the San Francisco Police Department will be allowed to use these robots. | |
| Quote, Now, obviously, the policy, as it's written, is quite broad, covering everything from training all the way up to apprehending criminals or even executing on a warrant. | |
| Although the policy does go on to state that the robots will not use deadly force unless it's absolutely necessary. | |
| Here's what it specifically states on this part. | |
| Meaning, according to this policy, that these killer robots can really only be used as a last resort. | |
| Now... | |
| There's something that's really worth highlighting about the way that this particular part of the policy is written. | |
| Because the way it's written and the authority that it gives to the police is not by accident. | |
| You see, this man right here is named Aaron Peskin. | |
| He's the chairman of the committee in San Francisco that was given a draft version of this policy. | |
| And his job was to review the draft version and sign off on it and then send it along to the full Board of Supervisors for a full vote. | |
| And initially, when he received the draft version of this policy, he made the attempt to limit the police department's authority by adding this one little sentence. | |
| Meaning he wanted to explicitly limit the use of killer robots. | |
| But just a week after he attempted to add this little sentence, well, as you can see up on your screen, the police department struck out his suggestion with a thick red line and replaced it with their own language that does allow the police to use killer robots. | |
| And it was this version, the final version, that was eventually sent to the full San Francisco Board of Supervisors, who then received it, voted on it, approved it, and signed off on the policy. | |
| However, this then kicked off a flurry of protests from the people in San Francisco who said that they don't feel comfortable with the police having the authority to use lethal remote-controlled robots in emergency situations. | |
| And after enough pushback, the San Francisco Police Department, they came out in order to clarify, at least at the moment, that they don't have any pre-armed robots and they don't have any plans in the near future to arm any robots with guns. | |
| However, as I alluded to earlier, the department did add in their statement that they could deploy robots that are equipped with explosive charges to, quote, Essentially, the SFPD, within their statement, they clarify that if they have to, they will use robots strapped with little bombs to eliminate whatever threat there is. | |
| Meaning, as I mentioned earlier, the robots that we took a look at The robots that we know are in the SFPD's possession could all be used offensively, no matter how innocuous they look. | |
| They can have little bombs strapped to them, and then they can be sent in the field to blow up whatever target there is. | |
| And while this scenario has thus far, at least, never taken place in San Francisco, it has been done elsewhere. | |
| For instance, back in the year 2016, the Dallas police force took one of their robots and strapped plastic explosives to it in order to send it into the field and blow up a barricaded mass shooting suspect who, by that point, had already killed five officers and wounded 11 others. | |
| Here's a clip from that day. | |
| These robots have been part of police tactical equipment for years. | |
| But when a robot was used to deliver the bomb that killed the suspected shooter in Dallas Thursday, it's believed to have been the first time one was used to intentionally kill someone. | |
| Dallas police say they used a bomb robot to take out Micah Johnson because they had no other choice. | |
| Negotiations broke down. | |
| We had an exchange of gunfire with the suspect. | |
| We saw no other option. | |
| Federal law enforcement sources believe it delivered a small explosive typically used by SWAT teams to breach or blow open a door. | |
| It's a tactic used very rarely by the military and likely for the first time by U.S. law enforcement. | |
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| Now, that particular incident was actually the first time here in the U.S. that a police force used a robot to kill a suspect. | |
| It was, you can say, a groundbreaking moment. | |
| However, despite there being only one documented case of this happening, well, seeing this incident unfold, civil liberty groups began to sound the alarm about the possibility of more and more robots, including robots with lethal capabilities, being used out in the field. | |
| For instance, the ACLU, shortly after the incident over in Dallas, Texas, they wrote an article in which they said this, quote, Which is really, at least in my opinion, the crux of the matter here. | |
| Because as this technology develops more and more, as these robots naturally get better, they get more effective, and they get more, you can say, sophisticated, it's going to be a real challenge for the leaders within different police forces across the country to justify not using them. | |
| I mean, just imagine the scenario. | |
| Let's say you are a police supervisor, and then suddenly there is a dangerous situation. | |
| Maybe there's an active shooter inside a shopping mall within your city limits. | |
| And naturally enough, you want to eliminate the threat, you want to save the civilians, but you're also, naturally enough, concerned about the safety of your officers. | |
| And at that point, the math will be fairly obvious. | |
| You can either send in a robot who can do the job, or you can send in your men who might get killed in the process. | |
| In that type of a situation, a robot, well, it's a phenomenal tool. | |
| But here's the problem. | |
| It's a fairly obvious problem to anyone who's ever studied any history. | |
| In general, the government, government agencies, they tend to hold onto and expand whatever power is given to them. | |
| And so as a general rule of thumb, Whatever the government is allowed to do today, well, it'll expand a hundredfold in a few decades. | |
| And so, if the government is given the authority to use these killer robots today, what happens 20 years from now when the technology behind these robots gets super advanced, the robots themselves become ever more capable, and perhaps AI technology replaces any human input? | |
| It's not unfathomable to imagine these robots taking over many different types of police interactions, because all police interactions are inherently dangerous. | |
| And so, as the technology develops, instead of having a human police officer take care of, let's say, routine traffic stops, which always have the possibility to escalate into a shootout, well, the police force can just send in a robot to issue citations and traffic tickets. | |
| And the entire thing can be justified because it does in fact save the lives of dozens of officers every single year. | |
| But on the flip side, we might have roaming robots capable of killing us doing police work. | |
| And of course, it's not just ground-based robots either. | |
| In fact, this article from the ACLU raises a very interesting and pertinent question. | |
| If robots are authorized to use legal lethal force today, well, how long will it be until law enforcement utilizes aerial drones for the same purpose? | |
| After all, we've seen numerous examples of local police departments throughout the whole country get more and more, you can say, militarized in recent years, wherein they adopt the equipment which was originally designed to be used in combat by military personnel. | |
| And furthermore, it's already fairly well documented that many police forces, again, throughout the whole country, already currently utilize drone technology. | |
| Now, of course, at the moment, it appears that the drones that the police are using Are similar to the ones that are commercially available to you and I, the ones that we can buy over in places like Target or Walmart. | |
| But many people have been sounding the alarm, especially in recent years, that just by recombining some of the technology that's already available, the technology that already exists, something like a swarm of AI-controlled killer drones is already possible. | |
| For instance, Mr. | |
| Elon Musk, he went on the record to voice his concern about the feasibility of drones being used for targeted assassinations. | |
| Here's specifically what he said. | |
| You could make a swarm of assassin drones for very little money by just taking the face ID chip that's used in cell phones and having a small explosive charge and a standard drone and have them just do a grid sweep of the building until they find the person they're looking for, ram into them, and explode. | |
| You can do that right now. | |
| No new technology is needed. | |
| Right now. | |
| Now that is naturally horrifying. | |
| And if you'd like to see a visual representation of what Mr. | |
| Elon Musk described, well, over on YouTube there was a video that was created by Alter called Slaughterbots, which does just that. | |
| Now mind you, this is a fictional video, but as you're watching the short clip I'm about to show you, really just consider, based on the statement from Elon Musk and what we discussed earlier in the episode, how fictional it really is. | |
| Take a look. | |
| Just like any mobile device these days, it has cameras and sensors, and just like your phones and social media apps, it does facial recognition. | |
| Inside here is three grams of shaped explosive. | |
| This is how it works. | |
| Did you see that? | |
| Thank you. | |
| That little bang is enough to penetrate the skull and destroy the contents. | |
| They used to say guns don't kill people. | |
| People do. | |
| Well, people don't. | |
| They get emotional, disobey orders, aim high. | |
| Let's watch the weapons make the decisions. | |
| Now, trust me, these were all bad guys. | |
| Now that is an airstrike of surgical precision. | |
| It's one of a range of products. | |
| Trained as a team, they can penetrate buildings, cars, trains, evade people, bullets, pretty much any countermeasure. | |
| They cannot be stopped. | |
| And again, if you're wondering about how we get from where we are today to a possible future where the police have access to these AI-controlled bots, well, the answer is simple. | |
| We get there step by step. | |
| We get there incrementally. | |
| And this policy directive from the SFPD, well, it's just another step. | |
| A concrete guideline allowing the police department in San Francisco to use killer robots if they deem it necessary. | |
| Now, it is worth mentioning that because there was such fierce pushback against this particular policy from the community, well, just yesterday, on Tuesday, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors actually reversed course. | |
| They took another vote, and unanimously, they decided to explicitly ban the use of killer robots, at least for now, which you might assume solves the entire issue. | |
| It's all well and done. | |
| But that's not the case. | |
| Because what the San Francisco Board of Supervisors actually did was that they sent the issue back to a committee for further discussion. | |
| And then, after the discussion is over, after they go back and forth within the committee, they'll vote in it again to decide whether these robots will be allowed or not. | |
| They've essentially kicked the can down the road. | |
| If you'd like to go deeper into this story of the killer robots, if you'd like to dig into the San Francisco policy, or watch any of the videos we went through today, all that will be down in the description box below for you to peruse. | |
| And furthermore, I would really love to know your thoughts on this particular issue. | |
| Because to me, it's not really such a black and white issue. | |
| I mean, in the arena of bomb disposal, the utility of these robots is just unquestionable. | |
| I would much rather send in a robot to disarm an active bomb rather than a police officer who has a life and a family. | |
| That's a very easy decision to make, at least for me. | |
| But what about these robots that can actually kill people? | |
| Because on the one hand, I think that most people understand that in general, police work is both hard and dangerous. | |
| It's a hard and dangerous job. | |
| And any piece of technology that can help to make it more safe, well, it's always welcome. | |
| But there's a real tension. | |
| And I would say in a free society like ours, it's a healthy tension between, on the one hand, giving the police the authority, resources, and advanced tools that they need to fight crime, but balancing that with the right of us, meaning the American citizens, to remain free, unviolated, and to not face the prospect of being chased down by killer robots on our city and to not face the prospect of being chased down by And again, as I mentioned earlier, having studied enough history, at least in my lifetime, I know that whatever the government is allowed to do today, it will just expand a hundredfold in a few decades. | |
| And so, if today they are granted the authority, such as with this policy from San Francisco, to use little robots strapped with explosives, what's to say 20 years from now there won't be another Ruby Ridge type of situation where the police decide to send in killer drone squad to neutralize the threat. | |
| I guess that's what you call a slippery slope. | |
| But what do you think? | |
| Do the pros outweigh the cons? | |
| Do you think it's just inevitable that we move in this direction? | |
| And can you actually think of any possible scenario where this is done well, so that the police can use these robots without having them descend into some kind of eventual dystopia, I'd love to know your thoughts. | |
| Please leave them in the comments section below. | |
| I'll be reading them later today, later this week, and probably into the weekend. | |
| And also, I'd love to give a big shout-out to Mr. | |
| Eric Schumacher, who helped put together a lot of the research for today's episode. | |
| And then lastly, since it's the holiday season, I have a small suggestion for you. | |
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| And then, until next time, I'm your host, Roman from The Epoch Times. |
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