Brendan Carr, FCC commissioner, went on a Twitter rant about robodogs this week. He cited apocalyptic science-fiction movies and television before implying that he was just joking about it all.
I've seen Terminator, I've seen I, Robot, he posted, as well as a video of a Spot robodog created by Boston Dynamics. This is how it ends.
He said that Im proposing a new rule. It is illegal to have your robot dog too big to be able to jump over in an emergency.
Carr's comments as one of the most powerful tech officials in the nation were astonishing. He continued to hammer his deep credentials as having seen Terminator (1984), in which Arnold Schwarzenegger played a killer robot with an amusing accent.
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Listen, Terminator does not qualify me to propose the rule. Then, watching I, Robot, he responded to criticism. He speculated that your account might be a burner account for robot dogs that have become sentient. That would be enough to speed up the rulemaking.
He was soon noticed by Brendan Schulman (VP Policy and Government Relations, Boston Dynamics), who seemed to take his comments seriously.
Commissioner Carr, the robot's top speed is 3.6 mph (you can easily walk it), and the red button on its back immediately disables its motors. He wrote. Any concerns, I welcome an informative discussion.
Carr, however, was not having it and invoked yet another sci-fi series to show the danger of slow-moving enemies.
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He replied that the Walking Dead zombies don't move fast. It's right there in the title. Notice how they are always right on your heels? Cold comfort is the speed limit.
This raises the question whether Carr was really just shitposting. These tweets were also posted around 8pm, and ended at the early morning hours after midnight. This suggests that not everyone involved was completely sober.
Perhaps the tweets were tongue in cheek allusions to real concern. Ghost Robotics, an opponent to Boston Dynamics, attached a sniper rifle and alarmist experts earlier this month.
Toby Walsh, UNSW Sydney AI professor, said that this crosses a moral and legal line and takes us to a dangerous and dark world. These weapons will be used to terrorize and destabilize rogue countries. These weapons will be used to terrorize.
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Carr's attempts to respond to the Twitterstorm didn't help us determine if or how much he was being facetious.
I don't mind if someone tweets The Conservative Case Against Kicking Over Robot Dogs. Nothing is more conservative than trying preserve our existence.
Carr ended the segment by addressing the issue in a now-pinned Tweet that we can't really decode.
He admitted that he didn't think it was the best idea to propose a rule for tipping robot dogs over humans based on sci-fi movies. You can also dress in humor and neither robot dogs nor their defenders are likely to see you when the apocalypse strikes.
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Another head-scratcher. These are the people who run the United States government, Folks.
More about robodogs: They strapped a Sniper rifle to a robot dog
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