Elon Musk Plans to End Prisons by Having His Robots Follow Crooks and Stop Them from ‘Doing Crime’
Tesla CEO and famous hypemaster Elon Musk has suggested a new use for the company’s Optimus humanoid robots: allowing them to track and monitor former criminals to prevent them from reoffending. Musk plans to end prisons in favor of a “more humane form of containing future crime.”
Futurism reports that at a recent Tesla shareholder meeting, Elon Musk revealed his latest unconventional idea: using the company’s Optimus robots to monitor criminals and intervene if they try to commit new crimes. Musk presented this as a “more humane form of future crime containment” compared to the current prison system.
“You don’t have to put people in jail and all that,” Musk said. “If someone commits a crime, you now get a free Optimus and it’s just going to follow you around and stop you from committing a crime. But other than that, you can do anything. It’s just going to stop you from committing a crime, that’s really it.”
The proposal immediately sparked controversy and raised many ethical and practical questions. Musk provided few details on how the robots, which are still in the early stages of development, would be able to identify and prevent criminal acts. There are also significant concerns about privacy, surveillance, and the societal implications of integrating for-profit robots into the criminal justice system.
“It shows a complete lack of understanding of criminology, the justice system and, frankly, basic human rights,” said Michael Johnson, a legal expert at the Brookings Institution. “The idea that a robot can somehow rehabilitate offenders better than comprehensive support programs is absurd. It appears more like a dystopian surveillance system than anything else.”
Others have pointed out the current limitations of Tesla’s Optimus robots, which have so far only been shown performing basic tasks like waving and carrying boxes. AI ethicists have highlighted the immense challenges of programming robots to make nuanced judgments in dynamic real-world situations.
“These robots simply don’t have the intelligence or physical capabilities to monitor, much less restrict, human behavior,” said robotics engineer Sarah Chen. “The risks of false positives, bias and misuse are immense. What happens when a robot misinterprets a benign situation as a crime? Who is responsible?”
Some Tesla investors have expressed concern that Elon Musk appears increasingly distracted by grandiose side projects rather than focusing on fundamental issues such as ramping up production. The shareholders’ meeting in question also granted Musk a new salary package of 1,000 billion dollars.
Musk has a history of making provocative statements and pursuing unconventional ideas, from colonizing Mars to implanting computer chips in human brains. But even by his standards, the notion of robot parole officers seems to many to be a bridge too far into science fiction.
Learn more about Futurism here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship.
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