Boston Dynamics Pledges to Never Weaponize Its Robots
Boston Dynamics and several leading robotics companies, including China’s Unitree, are promising to never weaponize their technologies when it comes to general purpose robots.
The companies announced(Opens in a new window) the pledge today amid a growing number of videos and demos showing how the quadruped “robot dogs” that Boston Dynamics helped pioneer can be easily outfitted with guns and rocket launchers.
“We now feel renewed urgency in light of the increasing public concern in recent months caused by a small number of people who have visibly publicized their makeshift efforts to weaponize commercially available robots,” said the companies, which also include Agility Robotics, a maker of bipedal delivery bots.
Earlier this year, a video showed one such robot dog being outfitted with an SMG, which can be fired remotely. Since then, other YouTubers have done the same(Opens in a new window), demonstrating that it isn't hard to weaponize the technology, although the results vary. Meanwhile, in Russia, one company even placed a rocket launcher on a robot dog.
Boston Dynamics and its peers are now going out of their way to condemn the practice, saying it risks creating harm and violating ethics. “Weaponized applications of these newly capable robots will also harm public trust in the technology in ways that damage the tremendous benefits they will bring to society,” the companies wrote. “For these reasons, we do not support the weaponization of our advanced-mobility general-purpose robots.”
The pledge also signals the companies will try to vet who buys their robot technologies. “When possible, we will carefully review our customers’ intended applications to avoid potential weaponization,” the companies wrote in the
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