Boston Dynamics and other robotics firms pledge not to WEAPONIZE their products in new open letter

Robotics company Boston Dynamics is pledging not to support the weaponization of its products and calling for its competitors to do the same. In a new letter, the firm said recent efforts to weaponize their robots - such as a Russian inventor who strapped a submachine gun to a Unitree robot and filmed it shooting targets - had added to the urgency of their declaration. '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 letter, which was signed by six other companies, including Unitree, states. The Massachusetts-based tech company has frequently seen videos of its robot dogs Spot or its humanoid robot Atlas go viral for performing various stunts or athletic tasks in public. Anyone who has watched the Black Mirror episode'Metalhead' that features a robotic dog or seen the film Angel Has Fallen, which features an attempted assassination of the president by autonomous, AI-powered drones, is aware of the potential risks these new technologies pose.