Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/05/28/china-shows-off-robot-dogs-armed-with-guns.html
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I doubt anyone who saw the BD models did not see this coming, but here it is. While I wouldn’t mind a world where war became something where only robots were in danger, that’s not how this plays out, is it?
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Remember a relatively short time ago when we said “cool black-and-white Black Mirror episode! Of course, it’s a stretch to think that could ever happen…”
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But can it reload once it has emptied its magazine (and becomes susceptible to capture and reprogramming by the enemy)?
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Given where it’s mounted, is it even remotely sighted in? Why even use a traditional rifle platform with a finger trigger?
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So they’re hack-proof?
Cracks knuckles
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Don’t worry; the A.I. controlling it will be built by Tesla.
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“British Robot Dog Armed With Knife” is always the best version of this story
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Probably cheaper than designing and manufacturing a special/single-purpose rifle for non-humans at this stage and the robot can sight by observation given it will have very fine motor control over the rifle mount combined with excellent visual and other sensors to detect where the bullet went.
But, yeah, give it time and rifle form factors for non-humans will be installed. Or rubber plungers with speakers to scream “exterminate”.
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Who was saying that it was a stretch to think that it could ever happen? The plausibility of the scenarios in Black Mirror coming true someday is the very thing that makes that show so engaging/terrifying.
I have to say though, that this design looks like an amateurish proof-of-concept prototype because it uses an apparently unmodified rifle that’s designed to be carried by humans and fired by hand rather that something purpose-built for use with a machine. It still has unnecessary parts like the stock, pistol-grip and trigger. Having a robot physically pulling an old-fashioned trigger that was designed to be pulled by a finger makes about as much sense as those battle droids in Star Wars carrying around rifles rather than having their weapons built-in.
Also, is that a regular GoPro mounted to the front? The adjustable camera support looks exactly like the standard GoPro accessories. Really looks hacked together. (But still terrifying because it demonstrates just how trivial it is to hack something like this together out of common parts.)
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Guaranteed military sales. Renovation programs. Spare parts for twenty-five years. Who cares if it works or not?
Excellent literary reference here. Well done.
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Is that a go pro just below the end of the gun? Does the video feed look just like a FPS where you even see the flash of the muzzle at the edge of the frame?
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This reminds me of something…
Oh, right!
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Hmmmm… Feel like we’ve been down this road before… WWSGS 
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I’m mostly terrified about these being used on unsuspecting civilian populations by terrorists or your “lone gunman” type.
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Boston Dynamics was originally developing their “dogs” very explicitly as army pack mules - that was their “peaceful” usage. Of course this is where the technology was going to end up.
Yeah, if nothing else, war is about territory, and territory has this pesky tendency to have people inhabiting it.
Although this is only really a threat in the US because military grade guns are ubiquitous. (But that results in us already having a mass shooter problem - and it’s a lot easier for a would-be mass shooter to get an assault rifle than a robot dog, so it doesn’t change the equation much.) Cheap quadcopters with a hand grenade or a bag of ricin seem more likely for terrorist usages.
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Don’t worry about that. To really get the feel of killing civilians, you have to hold that gun yourself.
Like in every other preventable shooting there’s been.
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