On Her Command

Is it weird that I'm in love with Beeps...like Hanners level in love with her.

JMK

I could see May starting an Only Fans

Erin Moriarty

Technically, Beeps isn't completely incapable. For example, in all of their interactions, Beeps has shown herself capable of supporting somebody who knew how to do her job. I've had managers who couldn't figure out that bit either.

Some Ed

not much to learn. we don't do much of it, sadly.

Joe

Kinda hard to do given that they gave away all their money.

Shawn K. Younkin

I seem to remenber Jeph sayinng something along the lines of not wanting to get to much into the big scale of the QC world, so that might be a bit far-fetched

Tachpmg

Wasn't Yaaaaaaaay Newfriend supposed to set up shell companies to help AI's get bodies?

Tim

What about a "cash raising website", to help may and others out?

Ronald Burdick

You're not acting like the boss, Roko, you're acting like the person who knows what needs to be done to solve the job at hand. It is not at all a requirement that the boss could in theory do it, in fact most often they cannot. And that's fine, that's not *their* job. Also, Roko's about to find some depressing stats on human recidivism rates, if this timeline isn't substantially better than ours, given that this is set in the US. After all, a for-profit prison system has a perverse incentive to not help inmates stay out of prison in the future. How else would they have a steady supply of slave labor that they also charge the tax payers to keep?

Peter Jensen

She's in for a shock when she learns about human post-prison support systems.

RoofPig

A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. The civil rights movement of the sixties began with a bus boycott.

Philip D Jones

Yeah, it's pretty impressive in that regard. It started out as "dude tries to pick up a chick in a bar - and ends up with a platonic roommate instead", and is now "computers are smarter than you are - but still have the same social problems. Film at eleven."

Tom wilson

Roko ends up in Robot Jail for stealing money to fix up ex-robocons.

Captain Button

This comic consistently addresses social issues in some of the most creative and interesting ways I've ever seen through the AI stuff, and at the same time weaves one of the most richly detailed sentient AI universes I've ever come across in fiction. I just love this stuff to death and I never get tired of seeing the new places it goes. 😊

Sarah Manx

so, if a corporation is owned by an AI, is there discrimination? if so would an AI hire a human to be the 'meatface' of the company?

Tim Williams

Yayy. Not cheering that, just saying their name.

Czarzhan

Well, what a bureaucratic asshole described as "A niche within a niche." And he might have just been told that and was too lazy to check if it's true. Depending on the number of AIs who go rogue, this could be a larger problem than we know. Or, for people in power looking for the next source of cheap/slave labor, a larger solution.

Czarzhan

I mean, there's a sort of logic to this train of thought. If the problem is that our institutions are structured in such a way as to prevent help for people like May, you can only truly address the problem by restructuring the institutions themselves, rather than merely dealing with May's case individually. Can't help but think Roko's taking on too large a project here. Large Scale Social Change isn't really something you can do as just one person. You kind of need to be a part of some larger social movement. It's one thing to boss Beeps around and another thing to rally millions around this issue that's been described as "A niche within a niche".

Mitchell Sealy

Interesting question - how much of the government officials are AIs at this point in the QC-verse? Are there AI congresspeople or senators? What are the polling numbers of AI presidential candidates (though most of them are still much younger than 35)? Also - are there other AI billionaires, AI media corporate owners, etc? Or owners of AI body manufacturing companies? Effectively immortal and not caring that much about environment? What is their vision of just society, and do they even want to build it? I think there's a great potential for one small case to reveal a lot of interesting details about this world.

Evgeniy Semyonov

Roko is an ex-cop, she knows how the system works- and how it doesn't.

Dean Reilly

Oh! I didn't! Where?? :O

Dario

Beeps, we need to steal the declaration of independence

Ok so with human recidivism rates, 60% of released prisoners go back to jail within 2 years of being released, as such 90%of prison inmates are recidivist offenders.

Sally Fields

Yeah, "Here is thousands of pages of stats and budget data - please analyse them" is right up her alley. She has the personal contacts to make shit happen too (although Roko does have SpookyBot...)

Chris Crowther

I would think there would be both state and federal levels. Just essentially the same justice systems with slightly different pumishment, timing, etc.

Aaron Schulz

Damn, this sounds like something Hannelore would totally dig being part of.

Hawkeye

Ruko can boss me around any day! hehe :-)

Roko IS Boss. Roko is Love <3

I'm pretty sure anyone with this kind of common sense is institutionally not allowed to be a boss

Valraven

I'm curious: is Human/AI Justice Relations a state or a federal agency? And is Robot Jail a federal or state prison?

seeprybyrun

She is gonna get this done.

Joseph Bonnar

I mean if I was a boss, I'd totes let the person who knows what they're doing do what they do

Minzoku Bokumetsu

With the suit, Roko is looking a lot like her gestalt friend.

Sleepy John

Good on you Beeps for not getting in Roko's way. Many (most?) incompetent bosses try to keep control.

Andrew Mitchell

I will freely admit that I'm a Beeps. I do better when I have directions.

Lucanid Landman

The problem is that the easiest solution isn't viable thanks to all the repairs needed to maintain May's current body

Mason Griffith

Jailbroken is interesting terminology dealing with justice for post-cons.

Lightsabr2

to be honest... I was too busy trying to figure out which of them was the robot.

"he wasn't wrong, he was just so fuckin shitty about it" aka how most of us felt while reading his strips, I'm guessing? Like, he could've acknowledged the bullshit of it all and not been SO dismissive, cynical, sarcastic, etc?

A.A. aka Double

1, 3, 4, 5, and 6 are pretty great too

Adam Abbott

I love them both

Agnes

I suspect Roko is about to learn some very depressing news about how post-prison support works for humans.

Yonatan Zunger

The Battlestar Galactica reference: I saw what you did there.

Michael Boettger

When was Roko a boss of anything? iirc she was a beat cop. They aren't bosses. (well, except in the slang sense. )

Am Queue

This is so on-brand for Roko and I love it. Problem: May has a shit body Easiest Solution: Save up and buy her a better one Roko™ Solution: Restructure the entire criminal AI rehabilitation system to get her and every other AI in her situation a better body.

Reyn Goldfur

When you push the Roko Button, the Roko pushes back. When the Roko pushes back, the Roko gets results.

Joel Bateman

Oh, crap, her body is jail broke and she's got a cause!

Edward Clayton Andrews

Good luck, Roko!

Andrea Andrew

Slowly? I'm pretty sure, everyone immediately became robosexual the minute Bubs took off the armor.

Jaron Mortimer

I want to say I'm a Roko but in my heart I know I'm a Beeps.

[Everybody liked that]

thefinaldegree

Beeps always struck me as the subordinate type

Grace Kieser

I think Beeps face in panel two is my new favourite thing in this comic.

Spoogle McGee

Oh Roko, your finding out what it's like to be the only capable person at your job.

Lord Crusade

Jeph is slowly making me robosexual. And I'm okay with that

Alcaria Swain

Once a boss, always a boss. And in this case, that's a good thing is accept Roko as my boss.

Bailey Tighe

god im so fucking happy for roko shes doing such GOOD

Tamara Macadam