They took our jerbs!! In an unnerving development that crosses scary uses of A.I. and the elimination of humans ability to make a living, a tech company called Knightscope has debuted their new robot security guard, the K5. The egg-shaped bots stand about 5 feet tall and weigh 300 pounds. They are unarmed (for now) and are designed to simply act as a deterrent and alarm system to stop potential criminals.
The K5 was debuted at Microsoft’s Tech In Motion conference and according to a co-founder of Knightscope, Stacy Stephens, the guards are already on active duty at an undisclosed company in the San Francisco area. Stephens tells CBS that she can’t share who the client is, adding a sinister prophecy, “Soon you will see them everywhere.”
This is just one more instance of technology replacing an important pool of jobs for workers around the world. An Oxford University study from 2013 estimated that machines have already replaced 47% of employment opportunities.
If you’re freaked out by the Robo-Cops then check out these ambulance drones for a more hopeful spin on how robots can help. The drones are flying defibrillators that can reach a patient in half the time it takes an ambulance. It could come in handy when a Robot security guard rolls out and scare you into having a heart attack.
(Photo: Knightscope)
