Hey ROS folk,
I just wanted to know your thoughts on the provocative art project of MSCHF. In my opinion, their project shows very clearly that powerful tools such as the Spot robot can be turned into a weapon:
Do you think this danger is exaggerated? What do you think about the reaction of Boston Dynamics?
My personal opinion is that you have to be aware that an autonomous system like the Spot can also be armed and thus has the potential to be used as a weapon. Every autonomous machine for outdoor operation with high performance and mass can easily be misused as a weapon. Thatās why I think itās necessary to equip autonomous vehicles with additional systems that prevent this misuse. Unfortunately, the āanti-scenariosā described here are far too rarely considered in engineering. In my view, however, the experience of recent years in IT security has shown that this consideration is indispensable.
Thatās why I think the networking of autonomous systems over the internet is a very dangerous development. As soon as a system is fully remote controllable and it is not able to recognize whether it is being used as a weapon, misuse cannot be ruled out and is very likely in the short and long term. What are your thoughts and your opinion?
Kind regards
Tobias