Remember the robot dogs from Black Mirror?

[Marjo]

Hey guys, how's your weekend going?

I was just reading about some new robot tech and saw this article about BostonDynamics and the 4-legged robot they've built. I got goosebumps - it looks so much like the evil robots in Black Mirror. They were super creepy. Did you see that episode? (spoilers in link)

This BostonDynamics robot is called SpotMini and apparently they will start selling it next year. Interested? Check out the video below of how the robots open a door...

What uses can you think of for these types of robots? Do you think we'll start seeing these walking around in the streets soon? 

[pgn]

There is an air of menace about them, don't you think, those headless yellow "dogs"? 

Doors will have to change too, I guess 

[Glory1]

Sorry I don't get it. Why would you need a dog to open a door for you? Hands full, you just put down your shopping, open the door and pick up your shopping again.

Interesting idea but I can't see a practical use for them.

[Anonymous]

I can this would be useful for the likes of firefighters and aid workers in dangerous areas.

[Glory1]

Good point @techtaner, I never thought of that.

[Marjo]

Good point @Anonymous about the dangerous areas.

@Glory1 your post made me think it might be useful for those who only have one hand (or none) to carry the grocery bags and open doors.

Perhaps they coul also be some sort of pets once they evolve a bit? For those who are allergic? I had one of those barking and moving dog toys when I was a kid and at the time it was amazing.

@pgn that is so familiar, but not sure where from. Those door sounds!  I wish we had that at the office.

[pgn]

The clip of the doors, @Marjo, was from the movie version of Douglas Adams' "The Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy" - Robots, and doors, with "genuine people personality" 

So to the bit about using robots to go into places that people could not, can't or won't go (danger, etc), is all well and good - machines are there to make things easier for everyone.  But at what point does the machine become more than a machine?  Remember Philip K Dick's Replicants, in "Blade Runner"?

4-year lifespan, that was it!

[Anonymous]

@pgn

Yes absolutely.

I am concerned that AI is being touted as a panacea and not just because it could take my job!

The whole self-awareness scenario and machines turning on us due to literal interpretation of code has been a staple of sci-fi for years but I think the beginnings of it will be rather different than portrayed but will still not be the result we were hoping for.

Companies fear cyberattack these days and a lot of vendors of network devices are looking at AI to combat that threat on the basis that it can react faster to a traffic pattern that indicates an attack is in progress than even the most highly skilled and experienced network operations engineer.

Coupled with this the devices are being designed to protect systems from malicious attack from both inside (by for example a disgruntled employee who decides to wreak havoc just before they leave) and outside the network border.

The mitigation might be directing the traffic along a network segment with an abundance of bandwidth to blackhole the traffic (which is how Denial Of Service mitigation happens today) or to shift the workload between different servers or data centres to keep it running.

Under normal circumstances that is fine but if that system's behaviour is undesirable and there is a legitimate need to take it offline it will prove difficult because the routers/firewalls may block any attempt to do so as the system interprets it as an internal threat and so acts to block it.

[Glory1]

@Marjo I would have thought the robot dogs would have to be higher off the ground if they were to carry shopping. But a very good idea.

@Anonymous you set an interesting scenario and I agree with you AI is touted as the be all and end all. But there is a very real danger of being too reliant on AI. After all what was science fiction when I was a child is now science fact. And as many have said just because we can do something doesn't mean we should.

We are already too reliant on tech. We can't live without our phones/tablets/iPods/PCs. We spend hours looking at a screen of varying sizes and often less time interacting with a human being. I know I'm guilty of this.

I love tech and have been interested in AI since first being introduced to the subject in work over 30 years ago. That AI can prove useful in certain situations I have no doubt. But I fear an over reliance on any tech or AI as they can go disasterously wrong as we have seen. Data being lost or hacked, systems faults in banks so that your unable to get at your money.

Whatever the big brains think, AI is not going to protect us from every known problem or disaster. And may well cause a problem or disaster itself.

[pgn]

Catch 22, @Anonymous!

Truly self-aware systems need also to be aware of the other systems upon which they either depend or that occupy the same ecosysem but in different roles...

The thing about trust, not trusting what comes from without, and what might happen if one rogue agent goes amok on the inside, is going to be key.

Panic breeds knee-jerk actions, never good.