NYC Mayor Eric Adams Made a Heart Sign with an Armless Robot

• As part of a pilot project, a robot will patrol the Times Square metro station for the next 2 months.
• On X a user spotted NYC mayor Eric Adams’ attempt to make a heart with the new armless Patrol Robot.
• The poster on X (formerly Twitter) wrote: “@NYCMayor and the robocop. It cannot form a heart with the Mayor because it lacks arms.”
  

Social media users made fun of New York City mayor Eric Adams for trying to make a “heart sign” with the newly unveiled armless robot patrol during a Friday press conference.

Adams unveiled the 5 feet 3 inches tall K5 patrol robot that weighs 400 pounds at a press conference on Friday.

He said that the K5 will patrol Times Square from midnight until 6 am for two months, as part of a trial program. It will be accompanied with a human officer.

The unusual gesture was spotted by Katie Honan, a user on X — formerly known as Twitter — who posted a picture on Friday with the caption, “@NYCMayor with the robocop, which cannot make the heart with the mayor because it has no arms.”

Honan’s posting has now received over 11 million views and sparked reactions from other users who poked fun at both the gesture and the new robot patrolled by the city.

“We want affordable housing, and we need trains to run on schedule. Instead, we receive a robocop who is unable to make a human heart.” posted One user on X. Another added: Who could have predicted him to make heart hands with an handless police bot. His odd behavior is unprecedented.

One user posted a potential explanation for Adams’ odd move with the armless robot — pointing out that the heart gesture appears to have become a near-daily habit for Adams.

The robot is able to record video that can be “viewed in case of an emergency or a crime,” and would not record audio or use facial recognition, Adams said during the press conference with the New York Police Department.

He also said that Knightscope was renting the robot for $9 per an hour.

The new patrol robot is already drawing some criticism. Albert Fox Cahn, the executive director of the nonprofit Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, told the New York Times on Friday that the K5 robot was a “trash can on wheels.”

He said, “If he thinks that there are not enough cameras in Times Square then he is more out of touch than i thought.”

This is not the first time that the city has introduced robots on the streets.

In April, Adams announced that the city was reintroducing its Boston Dynamics-manufactured robot dogs — which cost $750,000 — two years after they were removed because of backlash from lawmakers and privacy groups.

Outside of normal business hours, the New York City mayor’s office and police department did not respond immediately to comments.