The Chinese military has introduced a new weapon: a robot dog armed with a gun.
During joint military exercises with Cambodia, the mechanical dog, carrying an automatic rifle on its back, played a central role, as shown in CCTV footage.
In the training exercises, these dogs worked alongside human soldiers and were supported by quadcopters armed in a similar manner, to practice urban assault techniques. “The dogs can be a new addition to urban combat operations, taking over roles like reconnaissance, enemy identification, and target attacks from human soldiers,” stated Chinese soldier Chen Wei in the video.
Despite their technological advancement, these killer robots are not overly sophisticated military tools: both the dog and the drone appear to have a conventional rifle attached to off-the-shelf civilian technology, with clear branding from the dog’s Chinese manufacturer, Unitree Robotics.
The starting price for Unitree’s Go2 robot dog is $1,600 (£1,300) according to their website. However, it remains unclear how the military acquired these dogs, as Unitree denies sales to the Chinese military.
The prototype of the robot dog gained fame from Boston Dynamics, a former Google subsidiary, which has primarily been associated with the U.S. military. The company has been cautious about weaponizing its technology, as seen in early versions of the “Four-legged robot” BigDog. However, other companies like Ghost Robotics are actively pursuing weaponized robots, as shown by their Vision 60 robot dog with a custom gun.
While robotic systems exist, they are not fully autonomous yet. Surveillance footage reveals soldiers controlling the Go2 dogs using handheld devices. Concerns arise about the future implications when AI systems are less dependent on human input, making quicker and less delayed decisions than human operators.
Source: www.theguardian.com
