New York lawmaker needs to ban police use of armed robots

A black robot that is in the abstract shape of a dog.

Enlarge (credit score: Michael Cohen | Getty Photographs)

New York Metropolis councilmember Ben Kallos says he “watched in horror” final month when metropolis police responded to a hostage state of affairs within the Bronx utilizing Boston Dynamics’ Digidog, a remotely operated robotic canine geared up with surveillance cameras. Footage of the Digidog went viral on Twitter, partly attributable to their uncanny resemblance with world-ending machines within the Netflix sci-fi collection Black Mirror.

Now Kallos is proposing what will be the nation’s first regulation banning police from proudly owning or working robots armed with weapons.

“I do not suppose anybody was anticipating that they’d truly be utilized by the NYPD proper now,” Kallos says. “I’ve no downside with utilizing a robotic to defuse a bomb, however it needs to be the best use of a instrument and the best sort of circumstance.”

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