Robert: Will robots' mistakes harm our trust in them?

Killer robots have been legalized in San Francisco. 

In a recent vote, the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) passed a policy allowing the use of robots to kill humans “when risk of loss of life to members of the public or officers is imminent and outweighs any other force option available to SFPD.” 

An article by Spectator discusses the implications of the new policy. 

The piece features University of Michigan School of Information professor Lionel Robert, an expert on human computer interaction. 

“Robots will make mistakes when working with humans, decreasing humans’ trust in them,” he says. 

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Read “Cyborg Assassins: Robots granted a license to kill” on Spectator. 

Learn more about Robert’s research interests by visiting his UMSI faculty profile.