Waiting for riots against robots

What until recently looked like a scenario for a dystopian TV series is being described by Europol as a вполне workable reality of the next ten years. In its latest report, the agency describes not a fantasy about a “machine uprising,” but a chain of events that logically follows from technologies and social trends that already exist.

The key starting point is mass automation. Robots and AI systems are gradually pushing people out of sectors that until recently were considered “safe”: logistics, retail, medicine, elderly care, service industries. For now, this looks like increased efficiency and lower costs, but in the long term it may lead to chronic unemployment for millions of people. And this concerns not only low-skilled labor, but also middle-class professions.

Europol suggests that under conditions of economic pressure and social frustration, part of the population will begin to perceive robots not as a tool, but as a direct threat to their survival. This may result in street protests, sabotage, and targeted attacks on service robots. Autonomous couriers, transport systems, medical machines, and any devices that symbolize the “replacement of humans” may come under attack.

A separate line of risk is associated with social robots, which are increasingly used to care for children, elderly people, and patients with disabilities. These systems collect huge amounts of personal data, are constantly connected to the network, and, as Europol notes, represent an attractive target for cybercriminals. Hacking such a robot is not just a data leak, but a potential opportunity to manipulate the behavior of vulnerable people, influence their decisions, or even cause physical harm.

An even more alarming scenario concerns the use of artificial intelligence for terrorist purposes. Europol directly points to the risk of attacks using swarms of autonomous drones controlled by AI. Such systems can be directed at critical infrastructure – energy, water supply, transport hubs. At the same time, the cost of entry into such technologies is decreasing, which means they are becoming accessible not only to states, but also to radical groups.

It is important that the report constantly emphasizes: this is not about the distant future and not about science fiction. All the described elements already exist in one form or another. Automation is accelerating, AI drones are being tested, social robots are entering the market, and cybercrime has long outpaced regulation. In effect,

Europol is warning about a new type of conflict – not between states and not even between social groups, but between people and the technological environment in which they live. If states do not begin to prepare in advance for these changes, invest in retraining, social adaptation, and the security of digital systems, tension will accumulate on its own.

Put simply, the problem is not robots. The problem is that technologies are developing faster than society manages to agree on how to live with them. And if this gap is not closed, by the middle of the next decade Europe may indeed face a new form of street protest – against machines that simply turned out to be too efficient.