Thailand Rings in New Yr With Drone and CCTV-Power...

On April sixteenth, Thailand’s Royal Thai Police launched their latest colleague, “AI Police Cyborg 1.0,” in a Facebook post stating that the robotic was deployed on Tonson Highway in Muang District. One {photograph} exhibits the robotic wearing a police uniform whereas it stands on a wheeled metallic platform lined by different uniformed officers.

Collectively developed by the Provincial Police Command 7, Nakhon Pathom Provincial Police, and Nakhon Nakhon Pathon Municipality, the robotic has quite a few chilling capabilities including entry to close by CCTV cameras, drones, and its personal 360-degree AI cameras geared up with facial recognition, behavioral analysts, weapon detection, and blacklist alerts. Officers say its video analytics are superior sufficient to distinguish water weapons from actual weapons and determine violent conduct. 

In accordance with the RTP’s Fb submit, the AI Police Cyborg 1.0 is linked with the province’s Command and Management middle “for environment friendly occasion security administration.” Ostensibly, enhancing public security is the robotic’s predominant objective, therefore its identify: Police Colonel Nakhonpathom Plod Phai, or “Nakhon Pathom is protected”. A spokesperson told ABP Live, “The AI Police Cyborg 1.0 helps us improve public security, particularly throughout massive occasions the place conventional policing assets will be stretched skinny. It’s a drive multiplier that by no means tires and maintains fixed vigilance.”

On the floor, that may sound good. However shopping for into the concept that a police robotic with a slew of surveillance capabilities is simply meant for occasion administration is unlikely, particularly when contemplating the Thai police’s record of brutality against activists. (Coincidentally, on April 16, Bloomberg reported that Thai safety companies have been doxxing pro-democracy activists on Fb and X.)

Know-how like AI Police Cyborg 1.0 has the potential for extreme social and political repercussions. Nevertheless, you might not need to freak out but. Police robots have a protracted option to go earlier than they will surpass the specter of extra developed applied sciences like cell surveillance. As an alternative, they’re disasters for a a lot much less ominous purpose: Being mid. For instance, New York City abandoned its subway robot in an empty storefront after an underwhelming pilot, and a police robotic in California as soon as told a woman to go away when she tried utilizing it for assist.

Though the Thai police eagerly marketed their robotic’s intensive AI capabilities, Futurism additionally noted that no person has really seen the factor transfer. Many robots nonetheless struggle to navigate obstacles like sidewalks or toddlers so it’s not far-fetched to counsel that the Thai robotic both can’t transfer independently or it sucks at doing so. On condition that and police robots’ international monitor data, Thailand’s robotic is unlikely to dwell as much as its full, dystopian potential for now.