The days of Spot being leveraged as a weapons platform and coaching alongside particular forces operators are already coming to an finish; Atlas as a back-flipping soldier of fortune won’t ever come to cross. Their maker, Boston Dynamics, together with 5 different trade leaders announced on Thursday that they won’t pursue, or permit, the weaponization of their robots, according to a non-binding, open letter they all signed.

Agility Robotics, ANYbotics, Clearpath Robotics, Open Robotics and Unitree Robotics all joined Boston Dynamics within the settlement. “We believe that adding weapons to robots that are remotely or autonomously operated, widely available to the public, and capable of navigating to previously inaccessible locations where people live and work, raises new risks of harm and serious ethical issues,” the group wrote. “Weaponized applications of these newly-capable robots will also harm public trust in the technology in ways that damage the tremendous benefits they will bring to society.” 

The group cites “the increasing public concern in recent months caused by a small number of people who have visibly publicized their makeshift efforts to weaponize commercially available robots,” such because the armed Spot from Ghost Robotics, or the Dallas PD’s use of an EOD bomb disposal robotic as an IED as to why they felt the necessity to take this stand. 

To that finish, the trade group pledges to “not weaponize our advanced-mobility general-purpose robots or the software we develop that enables advanced robotics and we will not support others to do so.” Nor will they permit their prospects to subsequently weaponize any platforms they had been offered, when attainable. That’s an enormous caveat given the lengthy and storied historical past of such weapons because the Toyota Technical, former Hilux pickups converted into DIY war machines which were a mainstay in uneven conflicts for the reason that ’80s.    

“We also pledge to explore the development of technological features that could mitigate or reduce these risks,” the group continued, however “to be clear, we are not taking issue with existing technologies that nations and their government agencies use to defend themselves and uphold their laws.” They additionally name on policymakers in addition to the remainder of the robotics growth neighborhood to take up comparable pledges.