If you are not all that enthusiastic about increasing automation and rising robot power, we have bad news. Robots taking away humans’ jobs will soon be the least of your worries– because they might have permissi#scifi take away human lives shortly.

San Francisco authorities have proposed a policy that would allow its military-style robots to use deadly force in situations where someone's life is in danger and other dangerous instances.

Robots are generally used for inspection and bomb disposal. But the San Francisco Police Department in the US wants to use them for "criminal apprehensions, critical incidents, exigent circumstances, executing a warrant or during suspicious device assessments", a US media report said.

Earlier, the local lawmakers had attempted to include guidance that robots would not be deployed to kill people. "Robots shall not be used as a means of force against any person," the original guidance read.

However, the SFPD has removed that wording in a subsequent draft and instead replaced it with guidance that allows for the use of killer robots.

This could mark a legal crossing of the Rubicon for the city: Robot use-of-force has never before been approved, nor has it ever been prohibited, in San Francisco. A version of this draft policy was unanimously accepted by the rules committee last week and will come before the full board on Nov. 29.