To mark the release of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Warner Home Video commissioned a study into the role of AI in the future of law enforcement.  Robots are already being integrated with policing efforts, but what does the future of lawbots look like?  University of Sheffield AI Professor Noel Sharkey executed the two-month study, and concluded that by 2084, advanced humanoid robots will be patrolling alongside traditional police.

He predicts that these robots will have human features and expressions.  Because of their ultimate robo-strength and inability to feel pain (and emotion) they would be well equipped to make arrests.  They would also be outfitted with sensors to detect drugs and weapons on would-be tough customers.  The robots would be able to pinpoint things like public drunkenness and other kinds of mischief and act accordingly.  One idea that is central to Sharkey’s findings is that these bots will be able to access or store huge amounts of citizen data, thus making them able to quickly identify people and keep track of criminal movement.  Sharkey finds that autonomous police cars should appear around 2070, being able to spot speed-demons, read license plates, and perform drug and alcohol tests on drivers.

The report’s conclusions are based primarily on leading robotic developments from Japan, South Korea, Israel, China, UK and USA.  These law-enforcement robots would help human officers in many ways and would lower the crime level, but, Sharkey warns, at what cost?  Sharkey says, “in the wrong hands…robot law enforcement could be a major blow to individual privacy and basic human rights.”  He says that Hollywood’s portrayal of future robots in counter-criminal work is often dismissed as “fantastical”, but his report suggests that robots will play a “much bigger role in society over the next 75 years than previously anticipated.”

So in 2084, when you’re hobbling down the street (to the hover-wheelchair repair shop) and Officer Bolts blows you to smithereens because he x-ray sees the machete concealed under your Botropolis Brand robe, don’t say we didn’t warn you.

[Sheffield Telegraph]