Comment by ImPostingOnHN

> our governments have contingency plans to prevent serious adversaries from attaining real power

What makes you think the current usa government would view violent, racist, genocidal people or AI or robots as adversaries rather than allies? That is a super bold assumption, given:

Only a few weeks ago, the leader of that government was allied with elmu, the exact person responsible for the content this article describes;

Only a few weeks before that, the leader of that government employed elmu to execute on a signature policy effort (DOGE);

The alliance weakened not because of any disagreement on violence, racism, or genocide, but because they disagreed on which of them should benefit more from government handouts in the most recent budget.

> I'm asking you to explain how a functional government would allow humanoid or non-humanoid robots to possess enough sapience to interact with humans in public.

Putting aside whether the government in question is indeed "functional", which seems like an open subjective question:

A government that embraces violent racists who employ genocidal rhetoric, would find nearly irresistible the prospect of violent, racist, genocidal AI and robots that help track and eliminate political adversaries.