(RoyalPatriot.com )- Video footage was released this week showing an armed Chinese military robot dog being tested. The robot is believed to be armed with a machine gun and ammunition.
Airdropped armed robot dog tested in China
The future has arrived and it doesn't look fun.
đmusicđ° pic.twitter.com/lxRYu8yPnn
— Jim Lewis đ°âđ° (@Galactic_Trader) October 10, 2022
Meanwhile, the Philadelphia-based Ghost Robotics is developing a similar armed robot for the US military.
However, not all US robotics companies are on board with the idea of developing robots equipped to carry weapons.
In a recent open letter to the robotics industry, six US companies, Boston Dynamics, Agility Robotics, ANYbotics, Clearpath Robotics, Open Robotics, and Unitree Robotics, have pledged not to support the weaponization of robots and urged other companies in the industry to follow their lead.
According to the companies, adding weapons to robots âraises new risks of harm and serious ethical issues,â in large part because these robots are âcapable of navigating to previously inaccessible locations where people live and work.â
The companies vowed not to include weapons technology in the robots they design or build, nor will they support other companies that do so. They pledged âwhen possibleâ to review customer plans so they can avoid plans that could turn a robot into a weapon.
In an email to Axios, Boston Dynamics CEO Robert Playter said the recent increase in âmakeshift effortsâ to weaponize âcommercially available robotsâ is concerning. He said for robotic technology to become âbroadly accepted,â the public has to be able to trust it.
While military weaponization is their primary concern, it isnât the only concern these companies have.
In their open letter, the companies warn that âuntrustworthy peopleâ could use these robots to âinvade civil rights or to threaten, harm, or intimidate others.â
At the same time, they write that their issue isnât with âexisting technologies that nations and their government agencies use to defend themselves and uphold the laws.â