Is ‘Spot’ a good dog? Why we’re right to worry about unleashing robot quadrupeds

As part of the Marsden-funded project ‘Issue mapping and analysing the lethal autonomous weapons debate’, Jeremy Moses and Geoff Ford have been studying public sentiment about robot quadrupeds and military interest in their development and deployment.

Their piece in The Conversation this week discusses the case of Boston Dynamics’ Spot and suggests that we should be wary of attempts to manage public sentiment about emerging technologies that can be used for violence and control.