A security robot used to patrol the grounds of a company in Washington DC has seemingly "drowned itself" by falling into water fountain.
Twitter user Bilal Farooqui posted an image of the robot, which patrols the area outside of his work, saying: "We were promised flying cars, instead we got suicidal robots."
Support for the Knightscope-made security droid poured in, with some setting up a "memorial" by laying down flowers and candles at the scene.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The robot, widely referred to as "Steve", had not shown any signs of depression - unlike Marvin from A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. One user suggests that the robot may have been so "bored" it killed itself.
Some identified another example of a cartoon predicting the future, much like an episode of The Simpsons from 2000 that joked about Donald Trump becoming US president. Futurama, a show from the same creators, seems to have foreseen robot suicide.
While Elon Musk, founder of Tesla and SpaceX, recently said that robots posed a "fundamental risk to the existence of human civilisation", others presented the suicidal droid as a counter-argument.
But at least one Twitter user is till hoping for an uplifting plot twist.
-
Bluetoothing: the phenomenon driving HIV spike in FijiUnder the Radar ‘Blood-swapping’ between drug users fuelling growing health crisis on Pacific island
-
Marisa Silver’s 6 favorite books that capture a lifetimeFeature The author recommends works by John Williams, Ian McEwan, and more
-
Book reviews: ‘We the People: A History of the U.S. Constitution’ and ‘Will There Ever Be Another You’Feature The many attempts to amend the U.S. Constitution and Patricia Lockwood’s struggle with long Covid
-
Supersized: The no-limit AI data center build-outFeature Tech firms are investing billions to build massive AI data centers across the U.S.
-
Digital addiction: the compulsion to stay onlineIn depth What it is and how to stop it
-
AI workslop is muddying the American workplaceThe explainer Using AI may create more work for others
-
Prayer apps: is AI playing God?Under The Radar New chatbots are aimed at creating a new generation of believers
-
Is the UK government getting too close to Big Tech?Today’s Big Question US-UK tech pact, supported by Nvidia and OpenAI, is part of Silicon Valley drive to ‘lock in’ American AI with US allies
-
Google: A monopoly past its prime?Feature Google’s antitrust case ends with a slap on the wrist as courts struggle to keep up with the tech industry’s rapid changes
-
Albania’s AI government minister: a portent of things to come?In The Spotlight A bot called Diella has been tasked with tackling the country's notorious corruption problem
-
The tiny Caribbean island sitting on a digital 'goldmine'Under The Radar Anguilla's country-code domain name is raking in millions from a surprise windfall
