Twitter reacts to 'suicidal' security robot

Support pours in for a Washington-based security droid that drowned itself

Suicidal robot
(Image credit: Knightscope)

A security robot used to patrol the grounds of a company in Washington DC has seemingly "drowned itself" by falling into water fountain.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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But at least one Twitter user is till hoping for an uplifting plot twist.

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