The Chinese military recently showed off numerous robot dogs outfitted with machine guns on their backs during the country's biggest-ever drill alongside Cambodian troops, as Agence France-Presse reports.
The terrifying gun-toting robodogs were part of a massive 15-day military exercise called "Golden Dragon" in a remote training center in central Cambodia and off the country's coast.
During the drill, journalists watched as staff took the robodogs for a walk — but reportedly never fired the machine guns strapped to their backs.
It's a dystopian vision of what the future of warfare could look like. Experts have long warned that the use of armed drones or "killer robots," particularly autonomous ones, is an ethical minefield that should be internationally banned from the battlefield.
But that hasn't stopped military forces and even local enforcement in the US from investing in the tech while arguing that their use could save human lives.
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@9MKVSV7Independent2yrs2Y
The use of these dogs is in a communist party so they will be corrupted against the people. Hopefully this technology isn't adopted by other countries.
@SomberBagelsGreen2yrs2Y
They didn't actually fire the guns? Wanna know why? They're not real. And if they are, firing them would've shaken them apart. China fakes everything.
Does this fold into a cassette tape and leaps back into a Walkman Robot in disguise?
@Freedom762yrs2Y
Am I supposed to be terrified right now? Because actually I'm laughing at what a stupid idea this is.
Shows off, but has yet to see real field use?
That's the problem with China's weapons, decent & some good ideas, but only used for PR demos and limited training exercises: China's army isn't deployed much anywhere mind that alliances, hence none of these hitech gadgets have seen real field use. You stick a jarhead operating this on a night mission in a firefight and guarantee this these things malfunction or outright fail. There's a difference between "experimental" to "battle tested".
Now their space program to auto industry are in a much better states, but that's from collaboration with the US and other western countries: collaboration works.
@GatoradeBarryPatriot2yrs2Y
Well, just a simple tweak by a good hacker and guess where the guns start firing. The latest technology can often be defeated by a low-tech solution. A repurpose used surfboard can take out a state-of-the-art Russian ship. Yes, state-of-the-art is being subjective.
@ISIDEWITH2yrs2Y
@ISIDEWITH2yrs2Y
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