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Humans Are Already Harassing Security Robots (cnn.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the fall-of-the-machines dept.

An anonymous reader quotes CNN: As robots begin to appear on sidewalks and streets, they're being hazed and bullied. Last week, a drunken man allegedly tipped over a 300-pound security robot in Mountain View, California... Knightscope, which makes the robot that was targeted in Mountain View, said it's had three bullying incidents since launching its first prototype robot three years ago. In 2014, a person attempted to tackle a Knightscope robot. Last year in Los Angeles, people attempted to spray paint a Knightscope robot. The robot sensed the paint and sounded an alarm, alerting local security and the company's engineers... the robot's cameras filmed the pranksters' license plate, making it easy to track them down.
The company's security robots are deployed with 17 clients in five states, according to the article, which notes that at best the robots' cameras allow them to "rat out the bullies." But with delivery robots now also hitting the streets in San Francisco and Washington D.C., "the makers of these machines will have to figure out how to protect them from ill-intentioned humans."

8 of 184 comments (clear)

  1. Bullying? by freeze128 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Is it even possible to "bully" a machine?

    1. Re:Bullying? by Excelcia · · Score: 5, Insightful

      No. We are nowhere near hard AI. We are nowhere near soft AI. We have expert systems, which are basically just a large database with a sort of dichotomous key on when to select different outcomes, that will likely be able to interact with natural language soon. This isn't even close to AI. Robots are a huge buzzword today, as is AI. You have every no name researcher out there trying to get noticed by inventing moral dilemmas involving AI then proposing solutions, which makes uninformed people start to think, oh, AI is right around the corner. It's not. We are a century away from hard AI, if ever.

      So no, you cannot bully a robot. You cannot hurt a robot. You can damage someone's property, and that is all.

      I wish Slashdot would stop with the whole AI story thing, but given the buzz and their need to incite dialog, it's easy to see why this is becoming more prevalent. I just feel kind of sad, though. This place used to be a real nerd hangout, by and for those who were technically enlightened, and most real nerds know better than to think real AI is upon us. This place has become more of a Big Bang Theory, nerdism for the masses, kind of spot. Sad.

    2. Re:Bullying? by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 5, Insightful

      This isn't even close to AI.

      Well, certainly not according to those who constantly redefine AI to exclude those things that have already been done!

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    3. Re:Bullying? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Its propaganda for people resisting what is the last bit of dehumanization of the general public.

      The robots exist to bully people. Actual flesh and blood people, which are more and more less considered people.

  2. They are too close to their robots by Gadget_Guy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You can't bully a robot. If you call it bullying to pushing over a robot then you would have to call it the same when you push over a trash can. It is vandalism when you are dealing with objects. I think the company is trying to anthropomorphise their products.

    1. Re:They are too close to their robots by Ceriel+Nosforit · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It is the behavior which is the problem; not the the target.

      --
      All rites reversed 2010
  3. Jeezuz... by Kokuyo · · Score: 4, Insightful

    First, it's a machine so the word to use would be vandalism and not bullying.
    Second, three incidents in several years doesn't exactly sound like a real problem to me, especially considering they seem to have more than one unit deployed.
    And third, who thinks it's a good idea to vandalize something that has cameras, honestly!

  4. Abusing self-driving cars by CanadianRealist · · Score: 3, Insightful

    While self-driving cars may be the perfect driver, that opens them up to abuse. Human drivers will known they can cut in front of a self-driving car without facing any repercussions. Pedestrians and cyclists can do the same.

    Here's an idea for a repercussion, at least for people driving cars. Send a video of the driver's behaviour to their insurance company. The insurance company can then raise the driver's insurance rates appropriately based on their driving habits displayed.

    Simpler would be to send the video to the police, but they're probably less likely to do something.