Spotify podcaster Joe Rogan called out the San Francisco Board of Supervisors’ “tremendously insane” vote to allow robots to used deadly force against civilians.
Local politicians voted 8-3 to approve a policy that will let the San Francisco Police Department utilize robots “as a deadly force option” when imminent danger to to civilians or officers “outweighs any other force option available” to the department, according to Vice.
Rogan shared the Vice article, titled “San Francisco Police Can Now Kill People With Robots,” on Instagram.
He captioned the Friday post with a scathing rebuke aimed at the Board of Supervisors.
“This is such a f–king tremendously insane decision with terrifying implications,” Rogan fumed.
“The fact that ANYONE thinks it’s [okay] to vote for robots gunning people down is fucking nuts, but that a majority is just bonkers.”
Plenty of responders agreed with the “Joe Rogan Experience” star’s assessment.
“Slap a rainbow flag on that killer robot & it will have an ESPY, Emmy & a key to the city within a few years,” someone commented.
“They will probably call them Republican Robots after the first death,” another pointed out. “Good ol’ media.”
While others were quick to point out that the robots aren’t sentient and human operators will be responsible for pulling the trigger.
“This isn’t skynet, this isn’t AI,” one follower replied. “This allows justified lethal force in very rare circumstances, controlled by a human via a drone aka robot.”
“It’s been done in the past, no one batted an eye, and it’s a contingency plan with most active SWAT teams for those very rare situations.”
Social media pundits aren’t the only ones questioning the city’s insane decision to allow the robots to kill.
“We have a very clear position that we do not think in a domestic policing context robots should ever be armed,” a digital rights policy analyst said.
“We really fear you’d be seeing these armed robots coming out to every protest on standby and that’s just a very dangerous situation.”
Local civil rights lawyer Tifanei Moyer remarked that, “No legal professional or ordinary resident should carry on as if it is normal.”
“We are living in a dystopian future, where we debate whether the police may use robots to execute citizens without a trial, jury, or judge.”
Rogan first expressed his outrage on Nov. 24, when he shared an article that detailed SFPD’s draft proposal to enable the 17 robots already on the force to be used for “criminal apprehensions, critical incidents, exigent circumstances, (and) executing a warrant or during suspicious device assessments.”
“What could go wrong using robots to kill people in a land where men can get pregnant and billions of dollars can be lost as amphetamine popping incels manage made up money,” he wrote. “WE’RE FIIIIINE.”
The SFPD has clarified that there are not plans for the lethal robots to be armed with guns.
According to SFPD spokesperson Allison Maxiem, they would likely be armed with explosives and deployed “to contact, incapacitate, or disorient violent, armed, or dangerous suspect.”
“Robots equipped in this manner would only be used in extreme circumstances to save or prevent further loss of innocent lives,” she remarked on Tuesday.
This isn’t the first time Rogan has sounded the alarm over applications of advanced technology.
In May 2019, a Canadian based machine learning company created artificial intelligence that was able to convincingly deepfake Rogan’s voice, and released the terrifying audio.
“Friends, I’ve got something new to tell all of you,” the AI said as Rogan. “I’ve decided to sponsor a hockey team made up entirely of chimps.
“I’m tired of people telling me that chimps are not capable of kicking human ass in sports. Chimps are just superior athletes,” the program continued.
“I’ve got them on strict diet of bone broth and elk meat. These chimps will rip your balls off.”
Rogan was shocked by how “terrifyingly” well the program was able to imitate his voice and cadence.
“I just listened to an AI generated audio recording of me talking about chimp hockey teams and it’s terrifyingly accurate,” he posted on Instagram at the time.
“At this point I’ve long ago left enough content out there that they could basically have me saying anything they want, so my position is to shrug my shoulders and shake my head in awe, and just accept it.”
“The future is gonna be really f–king weird, kids,” Rogan concluded.