“I don't want to live in a world where everybody else has robotics and AI and the police are showing up in a 74 Chevy, you know, with an old radio. Like they're going to need enough tech to keep up with the rest of us. And then the laws and regulations and oversight are going to have to evolve to make sure that we are controlling the government as the people.”
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg · Money & Markets · November 2026
Context
Friedberg, describing himself as more libertarian, asked how citizens keep their liberties against a state with this much technology. Smith ended his answer with this argument for why police need modern tools alongside stronger oversight.
Transcript
…the biggest parts of the future is drones and robots arriving on scene way before people have an opportunity to get there. And the whole idea is to just let's understand what's happening. Let's make sure we're making the best decisions possible. And the idea is to keep everybody as safe as we can.
…So let me be clear on this. But this idea that you're creating a significant concentration of this extraordinary power, and it's hard for the citizens to be able to ultimately protect themselves against a government that decides to overwhelm voices and individuals at some point in the future.
Just got to do is take a step back and look in the world as it exists today. So let's imagine, David, that police have got a tip that there's a dangerous felon in your house. This has happened, right? We've all heard of cases where police go to the wrong house and they're doing an entry. So today, the way that works, like if they believe that you're a dangerous felon, they may come through the door in your house and you're going to be dealing with multiple officers that are suited up with body armor with lethal weapons in their hands who are going to have to make a life or death decision instantaneously while their own adrenaline is surging, right? Human beings don't make good decisions under the fight or flight. So the fact is the government already has a monopoly on the legal use of force and it's almost every one of those officers has lethal force. And I will tell you, if they feel their life is at risk, the thing in their hand will be a gun. By comparison, if those police are going to come into your house, imagine a future where if they do have to do this mission, and again, we can debate about under what conditions they should do it.…
And what's your view on the shifting political landscape, the rise of a DSA political class today that's calling for defunding the police? And what do you think happens to communities and cities over the next couple of years if and as more of that voice becomes elected?
Well, if you actually defund the police, you know, we will get some social experiments. I can tell you, you don't need an experiment to show what would happen. It will be catastrophic, but democracies recover. And I'll give you an example. I think it was in 1968, the police in Montreal, Canada went…
San Francisco got abandoned. I've seen it myself. Yeah.
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