Name: Boston Dynamics’ Robot Dog Is Now Armed—in the Name of Art
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Boston Dynamics’ Robot Dog Is Now Armed—in the Name of Art

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has racked up hundreds of millions of YouTube views with viral clips of its futuristic, legged robots , , and .A group of meme-spinning pranksters now wants to present a more dystopian view of the company's robotic tech. They added a paintball gun to , the company’s doglike machine, and plan to let others control it inside a mocked-up art gallery via the internet later this week.The project, called , is the work of (pronounced “mischief,” of course), an internet collective that regularly carries out meme-worthy pranks.Previous MSCHF stunts include creating to whomever could hold a button down for the longest; selling “” sneakers with real holy water in the soles (Drake bought a pair); developing an ; and from a Damian Hirst painting.Daniel Greenberg, a member of MSCHF, claims there’s a serious side to Spot’s Rampage though. “Anytime you see a TikTok or a dance it's like, ‘Oh God, Spot is so happy,’” Greenberg says. “But if we actually talk candidly about what it’s going to be used for in the real world, you could say it's police, you could say it's military.”Needless to say, isn’t very happy. The company on Friday: “We condemn the portrayal of our technology in any way that promotes violence, harm, or intimidation. Our mission is to create and deliver surprisingly capable robots that inspire, delight and positively impact society.”“If we actually talk candidly about what it’s going to be used for, you could say it's police, you could say it's military.”Daniel Greenberg, member, MSCHFMichael Perry, the company’s vice president of business development, says Spot’s terms of use prohibit violent uses of the robot. “The core things we’re trying to avoid are things that harm people, intimidate people, or break the law,” Perry says.Perry adds that it is a particular concern because the company is trying to sell its robots. “It's not just a moral point, it's also a commercial point for us,” he says.Because the robot periodically checks in with Boston Dynamics servers, it would theoretically be possible to disable the Spot that MSCHF is using. “We’re wrestling with that,” Perry adds. The MSCHF crew claim to have a workaround ready just in case.Boston Dynamics has spent decades developing robots that balance dynamically—that is by constantly moving—in order to traverse difficult terrain. The technology, which emerged from academia, was developed with funding from Darpa for more than a decade before Google acquired it in 2013. Boston Dynamics was sold to Softbank in 2017, and it was acquired by Hyundai in 2020. The company began selling Spot for $74,500 in 2019.The machines have remarkably lifelike capabilities. Clips of the robots, which include a person-sized humanoid, often attract comparisons to sci-fi movies containing killer robots.Supersmart algorithms won't take all the jobs, But they are learning faster than ever, doing everything from medical diagnostics to serving up ads.The MSCHF crew claim that Boston Dynamics offered it two extra Spots to cancel the stunt and remove the paintball gun. Perry says the company offered to help MSCHF set up a demonstration that didn’t involve using a gun, including on-site technical support and a couple of spare Spots.I had the chance to take Spot (and its gun) for an internet-controlled spin. Replicas of several artworks—including Marcel Duchamp’s , Andy Warhol’s , and a KAWS —were arranged around a room with white walls, visible through a camera on Spot. I could move the robot and fire its gun through a web app. To be honest, I had more fun controlling the legged machine, which was configured to automatically avoid obstacles, than unloading paintball pellets, but perhaps that’s just a pacifist tendency.The stunt is a little ironic, too, considering MSCHF’s backstory. The collective says the money for its stunts comes from “venture backing,” without providing more detail. But , a member of and also a cofounder of , a company set up to develop cutting-edge military technology, —a social app that’s sole function is sending every user an alert when a button is pressed. Asked about Spot’s Rampage, Stephens said, “The team will do a much better job explaining the vision than I can, so I’ll leave it to them.”More Great WIRED Stories is a senior writer for WIRED, covering artificial intelligence. He was previously a senior editor at MIT Technology Review, where he wrote about fundamental advances in AI and China’s AI boom. Before that, he was an editor and writer at New Scientist. He studied anthropology and journalism in... Featured VideoRobotics Expert Breaks Down More Robot Scenes From Film & TVChris Atkeson, a professor at the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, watches more scenes featuring robots from movies and television and continues to break down how accurate their depictions really are.

has racked up hundreds of millions of YouTube views with viral clips of its futuristic, legged robots , , and .A group of meme-spinning pranksters now wants to present a more dystopian view of the company's robotic tech. They added a paintball gun to , the company’s doglike machine, and plan to let others control it inside a mocked-up art gallery via the internet later this week.The project, called , is the work of (pronounced “mischief,” of course), an internet collective that regularly carries out meme-worthy pranks.Previous MSCHF stunts include creating to whomever could hold a button...

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Wired is a monthly American magazine, published in print and online editions, that focuses on how emerging technologies affect culture, the economy, and politics. Owned by Condé Nast, it is headquartered in San Francisco, California, and has been in publication since March/April 1993. Several spin-offs have been launched, including Wired UK, Wired Italia, Wired Japan, and Wired Germany.

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