ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

San Francisco Flip-Flops, Says Cops Can’t Use Killer Robots—Yet

After much rage against the machine, a city board of supervisors put the policy on hold, with plans to discuss it further in committee.

It appears Robocop won't be coming to San Francisco, after all. Just days after voting to give the city’s Police Department the power to deploy potentially deadly robots as a “last resort option,” a city board of supervisors reversed course, temporarily halting the ordinance. The 11-member panel’s unanimous “no” vote, which follows an 8-3 preliminary vote on Nov. 29, will send the matter back to committee for further discussion. Instead, the policy approved Tuesday would simply allow law enforcement to use robots to investigate potentially dangerous situations more closely, according to the Associated Press. The Tuesday vote follows monumental backlash over the preliminary approval, with several board members joining protesters outside City Hall on Monday. One initial “yes” voter, Gordon Mar, tweeted that day that he planned to change his vote, expressing gratitude “to all who’ve expressed concern” over the initial policy, and saying he regretted supporting it despite his own “deep concerns.” He added: “I do not think removing the immediacy and humanity of taking a life and putting it behind a remote control is a reasonable step for a municipal police force.”