Top robot companies pledge not to add weapons to their tech to avoid harm risk

Several robot production companies have pledged not to support the weaponization of their general purpose robots and have encouraged other companies to follow suit.

In an open letter, six leading robotics firms promised not to add weapons to their general use technology and said they would oppose others doing so.

The letter was signed by Boston Dynamics, Agility Robotics, ANYbotics, Clearpath Robotics, Open Robotics and Unitree Robotics.

Co-signers also pledged to review applications to buy their robots to prevent possible weaponization and to investigate technological features that could be weaponized in future.

In a statement to Axios, Boston Dynamics said it was concerned about attempts made to weaponize commercially available robots, adding that such developments could further erode public trust in technology.