See Spot Run

Mass. State Police Tested Out Boston Dynamics’ Spot The Robot Dog. (26 November 2019). Video Source: Youtube.

Boston Dynamics have perfected their robot dog, Spot, which can open doors and enter homes. In April of this year, BD's CEO, Marc Raibert, announced that Spot and another robot, Handle, were coming to the commercial market in 2019.

The Best Robots on Four Legs with Marc Raibert (Boston Dynamics) (19 April 2019). Video Source: Youtube.

In September, Boston Dynamics announced they would begin leasing Spot to select organizations and individuals. The robot dogs are working with were just tested by the Massachusetts State Police bomb squad. The police used the robots in two real life incidents.

In the video below, RT commentator Michael William Lebron, aka Lionel, fears that the robots could begin operating autonomously if their AI control systems were to get out of control.

Police robots designed to be 'cute' and 'familiar' – Lionel (27 November 2019). Video Source: Youtube.

Notice that the tech companies (Google, Amazon, Facebook) which are silencing free speech (particularly as of 10 December 2019) are also marshalling big data and have interests in supercomputers, artificial intelligence, drones, and robotics. They are introducing these elements into the public space and are merging them into single platforms. Through these platforms, the lines between government, intelligence, military, research, commercial and corporate interests are increasingly blurred. To understand what this means, substitute the word 'automation' with the word 'weaponization.'

If Boston Dynamics develops a robot dog powered by robotics that can open the door to your home - and its system eventually runs AI that can scan everything you have ever done or said on the Internet, is it really hard to imagine that warrants to enter houses will become automated weaponized? This reality was predicted in 2011 in the dystopian British sci-fi show, Black Mirror.

The Robot Dog in Black Mirror: Metalhead (2011-) (1/2) (9 June 2019). Video Source: Youtube. Reproduced under Fair Use.

The American Civil Liberties Union launched a public records inquiry on hearing news about Spot through Facebook. You can read their letter to the Massachusetts State Police, dated 7 August 2019, here. They asked for copies of correspondence between Boston Dynamics and the Massachusetts State Police. They received back a copy of the bomb squad's agreement (see it here) with Boston Dynamics, which leased Spot to the police between 7 August 2019 and 5 November 2019. A glance at the correspondence indicates that Spot's main weakness is its battery pack. This is good to know. Or it is in the short term, until they perfect battery life for autonomous machines. Oh wait ...