Spanish.- Season 4 of the series Black Mirror featured the episode titled “Metalhead,” where the protagonist tries to escape from “robot” dogs after humanity collapses. The post-apocalyptic story unfolds in black and white and does not end happily for her.
It was fiction, until it wasn’t. These robots now exist in real life, and as time passes, their developers give them more abilities. Some are being armed to participate in military exercises in China. As mentioned by SCMP, some label it as mere propaganda to send a message to enemy countries, while others do not doubt what could happen with future wars if these “dogs” were really added to their arsenal.
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A robot dog “scared” a child at the 25th China Hi-Tech Fair late last year. Almost simultaneously, in the United States, creations from Boston Dynamics held press conferences and patrolled the streets of New York. The government of that city bought two for $750,000. However, these Western models do not yet have military capabilities like those being developed in China.
A robot dog "scared off" a curious boy at the 25th China Hi-Tech Fair which just concluded in China's Shenzhen. #dog #robot #hightech #China #robotic #AI pic.twitter.com/U4woFSzMfU
— China Xinhua News (@XHNews) November 20, 2023
This is How Robot Dogs Shoot
Scientists in China installed a machine gun capable of firing 750 rounds per minute on a robot dog. It then fired bursts of 10 bullets at a human-sized target 100 meters away. After measuring the maximum distance between the center of the target and the five closest bullet holes, they found that if the robot aimed at a person’s chest, “most of the bullets would hit the heart region.”
On the other hand, weaponized robots could navigate difficult terrain with complex actions “such as maneuvering, climbing, and jumping.” Considering that these dogs can climb stairs, perform acrobatics, and even “cross garbage dumps or tropical jungles and maintain continuous running for almost four hours while carrying a 20 kg load,” it could change the way wars are fought in the short term.
🇨🇳At the exercises of the People's Liberation Army of China's reconnaissance units, robotic dogs made by the Chinese business China Kestrel Defence were equipped with QBZ-95 assault weapons. pic.twitter.com/sUuVqObh3X
— Aprajita Nefes 🦋 Ancient Believer (@aprajitanefes) July 13, 2023
It is already evident that the Chinese regime collaborates with anti-Western allies like Russia and Iran to create a new “multipolar world,” as admitted by Vladimir Putin himself. Therefore, it is not surprising that a lethal robot generates concerns. Until a month ago, a report from the United States Space Force revealed that both Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart are creating anti-space weapons to “deny, disrupt, or destroy satellites and space services.”
The Chinese scientists conducting tests on robot dogs have seen progress, but say there is still room to address issues, such as increasing ammunition capacity beyond 100 rounds. But what is being questioned here is the ethical issue. What decision-making power will these robot dogs have on the battlefield? How do they determine who lives and who dies? Are these experts working on that? Answers may be seen in the medium term, hoping they are far from the outcome of the Black Mirror episode.