Is it deeply cool or creepy and horrifying that this new generation of robots can dance so well? And by well, I mean so much better than me…
Boston Dynamics, the robot company that only two years ago was demonstrating how its bots could walk and get around obstacles, this week showed off its collection of robots for a dance performance, and it’s startling to see how much more agile and sophisticated they’ve become in such a short time.
Boston Dynamics was founded in 1992 and came out of MIT’s labs. It was recently purchased by Hyundai for a billion dollars. Though the humanoid bots featured here are still in research mode, the company plans to start selling the dog version for the considerable price of $74,000.
Robots are used everywhere now in industrial manufacturing, but as artificial intelligence begins to be integrated into the machines and they start to infiltrate our daily life, robot companies have a big conceptual challenge in shaping public perception. There have been too many movies where the machines have gone rogue and taken over. Thus the importance of showing how they can delight us by busting a move. Enjoy!
To paraphrase Dave Eggers, “A Terrifying Stroke of Marketing Genius.”