Bloggers spend countless hours posting sneak previews of the latest Star Wars droids from location shoots, then post links to Funko toy versions of them.
Commenters ooh and aah over said videos and toys and watch endless hours of Anthony Daniels talking about how stuffy it was inside that suit while he was making our collective memories.
But every time Boston Dynamics releases a new video showing their astonishing advancements in a field that will have direct net benefit for humanity, knowing that there is no such thing as AI sentience, let alone any indication that sentience would be malevolent in any way, it’s all “burn ‘em at the stake!!!”
I will never understand it.
ETA: That first bit is in no way a dig at you @Rusty_Blazenhoff, I couldn’t give a fig about reboings.
See above; while is true that Boston Dynamics used DARPA money to develop the BigDog robot (a larger, noisier precursor to the commercially-available “Spot” robot shown here) none of these robots were developed for military use so it’s not exactly accurate to say this is “advertising their super weapons as cute and whimsical.”
For example, that ostrich-looking thing with the suction cups is designed for moving boxes around a warehouse, which is exactly the kind of application I imagine Hyundai was interested in when they acquired the company.
Humans will always be afraid of what is new. Perhaps AI sentience would not be malevolent however humans certainly can be.
Its encouraging to see Boston Dynamics work, however I still see it as baby steps, we are slow with autonomus robot systems imho.
AI sentience, if it ever comes about, and again we are so behind on this, would be as profound to humans as discovering fire was. And possibly could be detrimental to our survival depending on how it pans out in the long run, i suppose.
I see it as far away from us as reaching another habitable planet is, at the moment.
