Who killed the robot dog?

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View this email in your browser  |   Manage newsletter subscriptions By Jennifer Conrad | 12.16.21 We are shuttering the Tech in Two newsletter at the end of the year. In the meantime, we're going to share other newsletters we think you'll like.   From artificial intelligence to battery breakthroughs, Fast Forward covers what's next in technology. Sign up to receive this email every Monday and Thursday. SIGN UP Good morning! Sometime during the stay-at-home days of fall 2020, I bought a robot dinosaur—named Dino, because who was feeling creative back then?—who became a star of my Instagram feed and Zoom happy hours. He's the best, but his robot dog peers seem to have gone from cute to cruel.     Who Killed the Robot Dog? For most of the 20th century, robot dogs were seen as a harmless if silly diversion. Take 'Lectronimo, the robot pet of the futuristic 1960s cartoon The Jetsons: It was no match for the charm of real dog Astro and ended up as a laugh line on the show. "Our nearly 100-year romance with the robot dog, however, has come to a dystopian end," writes Britt H. Young. "While Boston Dynamics explicitly prohibits their dogs being turned into weapons, Ghost Robotics' Q-UGV is currently patrolling an Air Force base [and] SWORD Defense Systems is creating a weapon attachment for Ghost's robot dogs." Mechanical life, historically called automata, dates back at least 300 years to an odd contraption called the defecating duck that chewed on a bit of grain and was rigged to ... defecate. More recently, in the late '90s, Sony introduced AIBO, a robot dog that can play and do tricks, but never required food or walks. Somewhere along the way, robot dogs were enlisted for public safety and defense more than recreation, and the perception went from cuddly to creepy. And as we've learned more about how artificial intelligence can be used to erode privacy, even mechanical pets designed for fun and companionship may seem like roving surveillance and data-collection devices. Read about the demise of the robot dog.     Deep(er) Learning: Robot Evolution Boston Dynamics' Robot Dog Is Now Armed—in the Name of Art A group of meme-spinning pranksters attached a paintball gun to the company's Spot robots to make a point about the automated future.   See Little Robots Get Swole in This Virtual 'Gym' The bizarre robots look like cobbled-together Tetris pieces. A new system "evolves" them to run, climb, and throw stuff better.   Watch a Robot Dog Learn How to Deftly Fend Off a Human Kick over this robot and it'll quickly right itself—not because someone told it how, but because a virtual version of the robodog already learned through trial and error.     Need to Know Container Ships Have a Size Problem With container ships lingering outside the Port of Los Angeles, other ports around the country hope to capture some of the traffic. But many ships are too big for smaller ports—and that's a problem for holiday deliveries. A Gene-Tweaked Jellyfish Offers a Glimpse of Other Minds Researchers have created jellyfish whose nerve cells light up when they fire, offering a tantalizing view of how the nervous system worked before animals evolved to have brains. The Log4J Vulnerability Will Haunt the Internet for Years A bug in widely used activity logging software is exposing some of the world's most popular applications and services to attack—and the vulnerability won't disappear anytime soon. Britain's Flexible Working Plans Look Like a Flop Many employees and companies want to find new ways of working—but UK legislation is stuck in the past.       So, This Happened Employees of the controversial crime-watch app Citizen voted to unionize. (Bloomberg) The Biden administration will make it easier for people to access US government services online, including applying for a passport. Finally! (The White House) US Vice President Kamala Harris announced $1.2 billion in private investment in Central America to help address the causes of illegal migration to the US. Efforts include initiatives by Microsoft to connect millions to the internet and Mastercard to promote digital payments and ecommerce. (AP) GET WIRED HOLIDAY SALE! Get WIRED for just $10 $5. Get the print edition and exclusive subscriber-only stories. Give yourself the gift of information. Subscribe now.     Until Next Time   A trauma surgeon breaks down the injuries in the Home Alone movies.             Was this email forwarded to you? Subscribe here. Have questions or comments? Reply to this email.   This e-mail was sent to you by WIRED. To ensure delivery to your inbox (not bulk or junk folders), please add our e-mail address, wired@newsletters.wired.com, to your address book.   View our Privacy Policy Unsubscribe or manage your newsletter subscriptions   Copyright © Condé Nast 2021. One World Trade Center, New York, NY 10007. All rights reserved.