What If A Robot Could Save Your Life?

Text of TEDx talk given on November 5, 2016 in Manhattan Beach, California by William Santana Li, Chairman and CEO, Knightscope, Inc. (www.knightscope.com)

What if a robot could save your life? What if a machine could cut crime in half? Crime has a $1+ trillion negative economic impact on our nation’s economy. It is a hidden tax we all pay every single year in blood, tears and treasure. A violent crime occurs in America every 27 seconds, a property crime every 4 seconds and a gun is stolen every single minute of the day. I believe that you have the fundamental right to be safe from crime, safe from violence and safe from terrorism.

I was born in New York City and someone hit my hometown on 9–11. My country was attacked. Freedom was attacked. My aunt and uncle used to work near the Twin Towers while I was growing up. Similar to my parents, they came to New York from Colombia and China, got decent jobs, bought a home and lived the American dream. I grew up believing in that skyline.

After the attacks, I so desperately wanted to do something for my country. I made a commitment to spend the rest of my life helping better secure our nation.

On a national level, we have the finest military in the world. Not only because of a $600+ billion budget but because someone is actually in charge of it. The U.S. Department of Defense oversees our military operations, maintains it, plans it and sets long-term strategic goals and achieves them. If you need a new submarine, jet fighter, tank or you name it, there is a massive group of professionals that will assess the organizational, business and technical requirements, put out a request-for-proposal to numerous standing-at-the-ready defense contractors….and…. days, months, years or even decades later your widget shows up at the Pentagon. And the U.S troops, rightly so, are provided all the capabilities one could ever imagine, all at their fingertips.

While the Department of Defense has complete control outside of our borders, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Department of Justice effectively have NO federal jurisdiction over the 18,000+ law enforcement agencies and 8,000+ private security firms across the U.S. There is literally no one in charge.

So with that lack of leadership, what have been the new breakthrough innovations in the physical security space over the last 100 years? Other than perhaps a stun gun, a camera and a bullet resistant vest there is not much to show. To add insult to injury, most institutional investors won’t even recognize the sector as an investable opportunity — which reflects not only an industry starving for innovation but also an industry starving for risk capital to drive that same innovation.

It is infuriating to me that there are over 2 million law enforcement and private security professionals who get up every morning and are willing to take a bullet for you and your family, yet the technology we provide them as a country is certainly beneath the dignity of this nation.

I do not believe the Founders of our country ever expected us to end up with a society where going to work, going to the mall, going to a movie theatre or even school came with literally a risk of being shot or killed. A fundamental change is required. And I can assure you that no amount of “thoughts and prayers” from our political leaders is going to fix this problem.

Our planet is going to grow from 7 billion people to 9 billion people over the next 3 decades. The law enforcement apparatus is just not going to be able to scale. Our 200+ countries today around the world literally spend $0.5 trillion on security every single year. Now imagine adding another 2 billion people to this already broken system.

Since the law enforcement sector is so fragmented with no centralized strategic planning function, exactly who is sitting around thinking about how we are going to innovate our way out of this un-scalable, trillion dollar mess? We either need to change how the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security operate or we need to set up a transparent, privacy sensitive, civilian engaging, innovation machine and virtually stand up what I call the “U.S. Department of Crime”.

I believe the future is providing security professionals really smart eyes and ears to help them do their jobs much more effectively — using autonomous robots. Autonomous Data Machines gather massive amounts of data about the environment and learn over time “what is normal”. For example, ADMs can detect a person at night that should not be in a certain location, or if a vehicle is tied to a felon, or if a new wifi signal shows up at a sensitive facility, or even detect a risk of a fire using thermal imaging. These machines provide a whole new level of situational awareness for humans then to decide what should be done. I would like to repeat that last point — for the humans to decide what to do!

With a decidedly “Software + Hardware + Humans” approach, the goal is to have the machines do the monotonous and computationally heavy work and have the humans do the strategic and decision making work. It would not only be a force multiplier but a game changer. And at $7 per hour, in the future it will be a liability not to employ the technology — similar to not having a smoke alarm or burglar alarm.

Eventually these machines will be able to see, feel, hear, and smell. As more and more progress is made on the technology, the machines will eventually be able to do 100 times more than a human could ever possibly do especially in detecting anomalies…and do it consistently. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, nights, weekends, holidays….every single day, all year long. With that amount of learning that can be done by the machines, one day we will literally be able to predict and prevent crime.

So now before you go thinking this is part of some science fiction movie trailer, there are Autonomous Data Machines operating live now in over a dozen locations in California — and one thing that has become one of the biggest challenges……lipstick. :-)

Now, let’s suspend reality for a moment. What if machines could actually cut the negative impact of crime — literally — in half? What would actually happen, what would be the implications?

The machines are here, they are here to stay and they are here to help humans. If a machine could cut the trillion-dollar problem in half it would change everything. It would fundamentally alter our society for the better in profound, new ways. It would be one of the most fascinating and impactful disruptions of our lifetime.

So, what if a machine could make the United States of America the safest country in the world? Talk to me about trade deficits, investments in infrastructure, and bold new commitments to our education system.

What if a machine could reduce your insurance rates because it can provide a real-time risk assessment to insurance companies?

What if a machine dramatically cuts the amount of theft from major corporations and ends up lowering prices for everyone?

What if a machine could improve the viability of your local business by driving more retail customers to your now safe location?

What if a machine could increase the value of your home because you now live in a safer neighborhood?

What if a machine could help your navigation system show you the safest way home?

What if a machine could simply save just one single life?

That machine would be absolutely priceless! Thank you.