Meet Silicon Valley's newest crime fighter: the K5 robot.

As the world grapples with the onset of drones and trembles at the increasing likelihood of sentient machines, a 300-pound machine is being deployed in places like corporate campuses and shopping malls. Like something out of a science fiction movie, the K5 is part of a broader effort to predict and prevent illegal activities.

While they are not quite artificially intelligent, these autonomous robots can see, feel, hear and smell, the man behind the bot told CNBC in an interview this week.

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"Think of it as a smart eyes and ears to help private security guards and law enforcement officers do their jobs that much more effectively," Knightscope Chairman and CEO William Santana Li said in an interview with "Power Lunch."

In fact, Li predicts the robots, which bear more than a passing resemblance to the metallic hero R2D2 from "Star Wars," will have a real impact on the law enforcement community and the economy.

"Crime has a trillion-dollar negative economic impact on our economy, and we believe we can cut it in half," he predicted.

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