SKYNET SMILES: Robot Dog Arrests Homeless Man in Los Angeles.

The man (who may have been homeless and simply sleeping on the bus that night) was convinced to surrender and a handgun was recovered at the scene. But just imagine what that guy must have felt like while slumbering on a city bus. He is suddenly awakened and finds the bus completely empty and there’s a robot staring him down. I’d probably surrender also.

All joking aside, this is one of the upsides to robotic technology in police work. It doesn’t have to look like Robocop. The LAPD used the technology to go into a situation where an officer might have found themself in a shootout and defused the situation and took the suspect into custody safely. And if the guy had wound up shooting holes in SPOT, they would have been out $278,000 (which was donated to them anyway), but that would still be better than a dead officer. Congratulations to all involved. Just let us know before you start installing the AI systems so we can move out of town.

We’re not quite at the L.A. depicted in Blade Runner — but we’re slowly getting there.