A bunch of robotics companies, including Boston Dynamics, came together to pledge to not weaponize their products. So, that’s all folks, no need to worry about killer robots.
The companies wrote, in part, in an open letter:
As with any new technology offering new capabilities, the emergence of advanced mobile robots offers the possibility of misuse. Untrustworthy people could use them to invade civil rights or to threaten, harm, or intimidate others. One area of particular concern is weaponization. We believe that adding weapons to robots that are remotely or autonomously operated, widely available to the public, and capable of navigating to previously inaccessible locations where people live and work, raises new risks of harm and serious ethical issues.
The companies that signed the pledge were Boston Dynamics, Agility Robotics, ANYbotics, Clearpath Robotics, Open Robotics, Unitree Robotics.
This pledge might help allay some fears of folks online, who love to react with basically “oh shit,” every time Boston Dynamics puts out one of their videos showing a robot doing wildly athletic things.
“We pledge that we will not weaponize our advanced-mobility general-purpose robots or the software we develop that enables advanced robotics and we will not support others to do so,” the companies wrote. “When possible, we will carefully review our customers’ intended applications to avoid potential weaponization.”
Notice that the pledge says the companies will not weaponize “general-purpose robots,” which seems to leave some room to make robots specifically for the military.
Also, noticeably, a company that has already put guns on robot dogs did not sign this pledge. So killer robots might still come for us yet. Sorry for the bad news.
