This is terrifying.
Duck, Jump, Shoot
China has released video footage of its rifle-toting robot dogs, and it’s about as scary as you were probably imagining.
Last week, France Media Agency reported that China had flaunted the gun-carrying robodogs in a 15-day joint military exercise with Cambodia dubbed the “Golden Dragon.”
And if images of the literal killing machines weren’t troubling enough, a new video of the robots released yesterday by the state-owned broadcaster China Central Television shows the killing machine dutifully hopping and diving, leading teams in reconnaissance, and shooting its back-strapped machine gun at targets.
“It can serve as a new member in our urban combat operations,” says a soldier featured in the two-minute clip, “replacing our members to conduct reconnaissance and identify [the] enemy and strike the target.”
According to the report, the quadrupedal robodogs — specifically, the China-based robotics firm Unitree’s $2,800 Go2 models — can “operate” on their own from anywhere between two and four hours.
In short, the modern, automation-driven military landscape is here. And, yep, it’s terrifying.
Target Practice
The CCTV video also showed off a series of aerial drones, labeling them as “intelligent unmanned equipment.” Several of these drones were seen equipped with and shooting machine guns as well.
While deadly drone warfare isn’t exactly new, quadrupedal robodogs are a much more recent addition to the battlefield. And though some robotics firms, most notably Boston Dynamics, have vowed not to weaponize their robotic hounds, other companies — notoriously, the US-based company Ghost Robotics — don’t share those same values.
On that note, China also isn’t the only global power with interest in lethal robodogs. Last year, following a report from Jane that the US military itself was experimenting with Ghost Robotics’ weaponized robodogs, a spokesperson for the Army told Military.com that the military branch “continues to explore the application of human machine integration” and “the realm of the possible when it comes to transformative capabilities for future combat formations.”
Translation: yes, we’re testing rifle-strapped robopups.
In a way, it seems that the gun-toting quadrupeds have come to represent a burgeoning class of AI-powered military robots and weapons designed to join — and, some imagine, eventually replace — soldiers in combat zones.
Such a vision for modern warfare is yet to come fully into focus, but certain elements are beginning to crystalize.
And if you felt a chill in your spine when you watched the latest clip — well, that pretty much says it all.
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