Meet Spot, the 160 lbs dog robot that can run, climb stairs and has an uncanny ability to maintain its balance. Designed by robotics company Boston Dynamics, there were heated discussions online when Google bought the company in 2013, with accusations that Google had gone against its "Don't be evil" motto by purchasing a company that had worked with the U.S. military and had close ties with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Google motto 2004: Don't be evil Google motto 2010: Evil is tricky to define Google motto 2013: We make military robots But more recently, the conversation flared up again, most of it stemming from the video released this week showing Boston Dynamics employees trying to kick Spot over in order to show how robust it is. The video spread around the Internet like wildfire and raised questions about ethics, the future of robotics and Google's intentions. As robots begin to act and look more and more like living things, it's increasingly hard not to see them in that way.

Giraffplus robot monitors a person's health and lets them communicate with carers Care o bot robot helps old people carry items and open doors Some researchers warn that robots shouldn't impair people's autonomy Giraffplus robot monitors a person's health and lets them communicate with carers Some researchers warn that robots shouldn't impair people's autonomy Almost eight years have passed since Bill Gates hailed a new era of "a robot in every home," and for most of us the sci-fi dream of an all-purpose automated assistant seems no closer. But in her Rome apartment, 94-year-old author Lea Mina Ralli, known as "Nonna Lea" (Grandma Lea), enjoys 24-hour care courtesy of her live-in android, which she has named "Mr. The machine comprises a tablet screen attached to a mobile unit, remotely connected to sensors around Lea's home that monitor her vital signs and activity. It feeds this information to the carers who visit her regularly and signals them in a case of emergency, such as a bad fall or elevated blood pressure. Mr. Robin also provides the more basic but valuable service of keeping Lea permanently connected to her family and medical staff, as they can converse via the robot's tablet-screen face at the touch of a button. This improved remote access allows her to remain independent. "It is very useful for older people who prefer to live in their own home where there are memories and comforts," Ralli said. "This automaton can become the companion of every elderly person who, while having to live alone, likes to feel protected." The Italian is one of six participants in a ground-breaking trial of the GiraffPlus system, an EU-funded project to bring robotics into the homes of the elderly and infirm, ahead of a commercial launch in 2015. It targets a demographic whose care has become a high-stakes riddle; aging populations are projected to push the cost of Alzheimer's patients above $1 trillion by 2050 in the United States alone, while growing use of care homes and their 24-hour support is also straining resources. The team behind GiraffPlus hope taking their work out of labs and into people's homes will convince the public and health workers that the technology is a viable option, with the capacity to improve quality of life. "We're trying to understand personal requirements rather than general requirements," said Amy Loutfi, the project coordinator and roboticist of Örebro University, Sweden. "The data can help us to understand if someone is eating or sleeping properly, and how to satisfy that need on a technical level.

If you've been to the RoboGames, you've seen everything from flame-throwing battlebots to androids that play soccer. But robo-athletes are more than just performers. Researchers at the University of Electro-Communications in Tokyo and the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology have built a small humanoid robot that plays baseball -- or something like it. The bot can hold a fan-like bat and take swings at flying plastic balls, and though it may miss at first, it can learn with each new pitch and adjust its swing accordingly. Eventually, it will make contact. The robot, you see, is also equipped with an artificial brain.

I remember watching TV shows such as "The Jetsons" when I was a child and fantasizing about the possibilities of living with a robot, riding in a flying car, or having food instantly show up warm and ready whenever I wanted it. Fast forward a couple decades later, and it turns out that we are now on the brink of a Jetsons-like reality. Robotics companies are popping up all around the world, enabling humans to program objects with artificial intelligence to do mundane tasks for them, ranging from mopping the floors to answering doors. Startups like Terrafugia are creating flying cars that can convert from driving mode to flying mode in under a minute. And food creation is evolving to the point where our refrigerators know exactly what is inside of them and can even conjure up recipes using the ingredients you have on hand.

Raffaello D'Andrea heads ETH Zurich's Flying Machine Arena Arena is at forefront of research into autonomous flying robots Quadrocopters learn amazing throwing and catching maneuvers D'Andrea says technology education needs to promote "unconstrained creation" D'Andrea says technology education needs to promote "unconstrained creation" Professor Raffaello D'Andrea isn't short of admirers for his autonomous flying robots and the amazing tricks they perform. Every week, he receives a flood of e-mails from excited people telling him how to use them, he says. "Folks have contacted me about using them to deliver burritos and pizzas, paint walls, do search and rescue, monitor the environment, flying cameras for movies ... It's just endless," D'Andrea says. "I'm not going to pass judgment on whether they are good or bad ... my role is to show people what is possible." It appears those possibilities are growing by the day at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH Zurich) where D'Andrea leads a team of researchers at the Flying Machine Arena (FMA).

Douglas Rushkoff: U.S. Postal Service new example of human work replaced by technology He says technology affecting jobs market; not enough workers needed to run the technology He says we have to alter our ideas: It's not about jobs, it's about productivity Rushkoff: Technology lets us bypass corporations, make our own work -- a new model Douglas Rushkoff: U.S. Postal Service new example of human work replaced by technology He says we have to alter our ideas: It's not about jobs, it's about productivity Unless an external source of funding comes in, the post office will have to scale back its operations drastically, or simply shut down altogether. That's 600,000 people who would be out of work, and another 480,000 pensioners facing an adjustment in terms. We can blame a right wing attempting to undermine labor, or a left wing trying to preserve unions in the face of government and corporate cutbacks. But the real culprit -- at least in this case -- is e-mail. People are sending 22% fewer pieces of mail than they did four years ago, opting for electronic bill payment and other net-enabled means of communication over envelopes and stamps.

Whether we are commuting to work, flying to business meetings or watching as human explorers venture out into space, human activity is relentless. In a world that is constantly in motion, what does the future hold? Will you be able to spend a week aboard a space hotel as inexpensively as you would take a cruise? Will you be able to fly from Tokyo to New York in less than three hours? These are some of the questions that CNN Future Summit: World in Motion will explore when it airs on the CNN International network.

A professor of musical technology at Georgia Tech, Gil Weinberg, enlisted the support of graduate student Scott Driscoll to create Haile -- the first truly robotic musician. In this way, he became a sort of Geppetto creating his musical Pinocchio. "Computers have been playing music for 50 years," Driscoll said. "But we wanted to create something that didn't just play back what it heard, but play off it, too." Think of Haile (pronounced Hi-lee) as a robotic partner in the percussion form of dueling banjos.

Add insurance agent to the list of jobs that can be automated. A robot just gave your insurance agent a pink slip. Zacharia took aim at the $220 billion-a-year US auto insurance industry on Thursday when she launched Insurify. Rather it helps you sort through the maze of competing companies, their premiums and those dizzying coverage plans. Think of it as Travelocity for auto insurance.

Remember those kids in high school who got all A's, never had a bad hair day and never broke a rule but always called you out when you did? They got on your nerves for being so perfect, didn't they? Given that meaningful human interaction often hinges on relatability, we often tend to prefer the company of those who show very real humanness. If they have imperfections -- not misplaced screws or actuators, but human-like behavioral flaws -- people are more prone to forge successful working relationships with them, according to a new study out of the UK's University of Lincoln. The findings could have significant implications as people increasingly rely on social robots for tasks like helping seniors stay active and aiding autistic kids in the classroom.