We've reached the point in techno-dystopia where autonomous humanoid robots are out assaulting girls in the street—or so some coverage of a recent incident in Cologne, Germany, might have you believe.
uncertain
you → reach → Cologne
But dig into what really happened, and it's human actions that appear more worrying.
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that → dig → ?
You are reading Sex & Tech, from Elizabeth Nolan Brown.
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You → read → Brown
For dystopian police-state flavor, we've got Cologne cops warning that simply commenting about this on Facebook in an unapproved way could be criminal.
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commenting → get → way
Without specifying exactly what kinds of comments are off limits or what law might be broken, the North Rhine-Westphalia Police of Cologne (Polizei NRW Köln in German) warned that social media comments about what happened could cross the line and potentially be a criminal offense.
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what → specify → line
Then there are the humans who were operating the robot that made lewd gestures at passersby and stands accused of grabbing the butt of a 16-year-old girl on a city street in Cologne around midnight.
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that → be → midnight
This doesn't appear to be a case of an AI humanoid robot going rogue and getting pervy, but some teenagers engaging in a performance or prank that may have gone too far.
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that → appear → performance
I say may here because it's not entirely clear what happened.
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what → say → ?
There is video footage showing the robot—dressed in gold chains and a fake mustache like some sort of 1980s sleazeball—thrusting in a sexual manner and making jerking-off gestures in front of people gathered on city sidewalks.
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robot → be → sidewalks
(Some of them appear annoyed or alarmed; some laugh.)
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some → appear → them
But none of the videos that I could find clearly show any groping.
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I → find → groping
We do see the robot bumping into people, but it's not entirely apparent what was touched or how purposeful these collisions were.
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collisions → see → people
Maybe the alleged "sexual assault"—which is technically the correct term for a nonconsensual butt grab, I guess, but still seems a bit too strong—was totally intentional.
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I → allege → grab
Or maybe this is a case of clumsily controlled technology brushing against someone in a way that felt violating but was nonetheless an accident.
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that → control → way
What appears to be beyond a doubt is that the robot was being made to engage in lewd gestures, which were played for laughs by teenagers (one 16 and one 19, according to police) who were filming these encounters and posting them to social media.
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who → appear → media
Is it a crime to make your mustachioed robot thrust its pelvis at passersby?
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robot → make → passersby
I don't know enough about German sexual harassment law to say whether this qualifies.
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this → know → law
In any event, Cologne police have not announced any charges yet; they've only stated that they're investigating on suspicion of sexual harassment and that they have confiscated the robot and the phones of the two boys suspected of operating it.
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they → announce → it
We probably don't want sleazebots just going around making obscene gestures in public, whether of their own volition or controlled by humans.
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sleazebots → want → humans
But, in the U.S. at least, sexual harassment requires some things beyond just making a crude gesture.
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harassment → require → gesture
Laws vary by state, and by the context in which the alleged harassment takes place, but it generally has to be pervasive, severe, or carried out with a specific intent.
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it → vary → intent
I don't think this robot's actions would qualify (though there are perhaps other charges that could be brought, involving disturbing the peace or something like that).
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that → think → that
But I wish people would chill out with the breathless coverage that attempts to make this into some sort of super grave and alarming incident.
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that → wish → incident
If it turns out these two teens did deliberately instruct their robot to touch a girl's butt, that's certainly not OK, and should be dealt with in whatever manner we might deem just if a teen did so directly.
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teen → turn → manner
But we're not looking at rogue robots attacking girls on the street, or at teenagers cruelly directing their tech toy to seriously sexually assault someone while they filmed it.
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they → look → it
At worst, we're looking at a livestreamer stunt that was in poor taste, not the imminent coming of robot rape squads.
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that → look → squads
And setting aside the alleged violation of bodily autonomy—which may or may not have been intentional—the other antics of this robot are kind of funny?
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antics → set → robot
Can I say that?
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I → say → that
I don't think we want to create norms where it's OK to take a robot dressed like a movie pimp out on the streets and have him make sexual gestures at people, but…I laughed.
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I → think → people
A woman named Carli Heller was arrested for telling Anthropic's Claude that she was going to shoot up the sheriff's office in Lee County, Florida.
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she → name → County
Anthropic notified the FBI, which notified local authorities, and she was arrested for making a threat of mass shooting or terrorism, a felony.
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threat → notify → shooting
"Heller's is at least the third case in the U.S. since August in which messages typed to an Anthropic chatbot ended up with the police, following incidents in San Antonio and San Francisco," reports Devin Pavlou at Straight Arrow News:
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Pavlou → type → News
The cases raise questions about how private chatbot conversations are, when companies can hand them to police without a warrant, and whether words typed to a machine can be a crime.
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words → raise → machine
Eugene Volokh, a First Amendment scholar at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, told Straight Arrow he doubts they can in this case.
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they → tell → case
In the past, Florida courts have required proof that a person meant to threaten or knew the message would be viewed as a threat, according to Volokh, who has taught law for 30 years.
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who → require → years
He said a jury is unlikely to find that beyond a reasonable doubt.
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jury → say → doubt
"I doubt that this is a punishable threat, unless there is evidence that the woman subjectively realized at the time that the message would be communicated to a human being who would perceive it as a threat," Volokh said.
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Volokh → doubt → threat
Heller's lawyer, Scott Moore, "said he plans to challenge whether a chatbot message can be a written threat under Florida law," adds Pavlou.
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Pavlou → say → law
On Substack
Tara Burns has a good/infuriating roundup of recent "sex trafficking" busts that involve no trafficking charges and in which police just charge people with prostitution and seize their cash.
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police → have → cash
On October 6, Virginia Beach police announced the results of a months-long human trafficking investigation that culminated in September 24 raids on four massage businesses and a residence.
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that → announce → businesses
…and 23 more, not listed.
The Aporia
