Russian YouTuber Straps Machine Gun To Back Of Robot Dog In Alarming Video—And It Was Just A Matter Of Time

Ok that's it, we officially live in a Black Mirror-style dystopia.

If you're like many people, those much-vaunted robot dogs developed by engineering firm Boston Dynamics have always left you a bit unsettled. What's to stop these ostensibly cute dog-borgs turning into something more akin to an electronic Cujo--or worse?

Well, worry no more! No, not because someone solved the problem. Rather, because a Russian YouTuber has actually turned a similar robot dog into a killing machine by attaching a submachine gun to its back and brb, we're building a bunker.

Clips of the YouTuber's video show the dog not only packing heat, but actually firing off multiple rounds, and all jokes aside it has left people genuinely disturbed because of the truly terrifying prospects it presents.

See one of the deeply off-putting clips below.

The video shows the Spot-like robot shooting off multiple rounds from a PP-19 Vityaz submachine gun with a terrifying lack of precision because, while the gun seems securely mounted, the dog's tech clearly cannot account for a gun's kickback.

It's most likely the robot in the video isn't actually one of Boston Dynamics' and rather just a very similar machine; company policies forbid its robots from being modified to carry weapons and it refuses to sell to customers planning to do so.

But policies and actual capabilities are of course two different things, and the video has had a chilling effect to say the least.

Since its launch a few years ago, Boston Dynamics has positioned their Spot robot dog as a technological breakthrough with a cute and whimsical side, like this promo in which Spot dances to Bruno Mars' "Uptown Funk"

UpTown Spot youtu.be

But activists, experts and regular folk alike have warned from the outset that technology like this, especially given its capabilities to access spaces and locations humans can't, could easily be used to violent ends by police or militaries.

Several police forces around the country, including the NYPD and Massachusetts State Police have already purchased Spot robots, as has the Department of Homeland Security and the French Army.

But while that uproar was mostly met by skeptics calling the warnings hysterical and melodramatic, the clips currently going viral seem to suggest otherwise.

So too, does the ready availability of models similar to Boston Dynamics' on sites like Alibaba for around $3000--easily in reach of many consumers in a time of widespread political violence and flourishing far-right militias.

On Twitter, people were deeply disturbed by the dystopian prospects the video reveals.

Normally we'd close with one of those "I for one welcome our new machine-gun-robot-dog overlords" jokes but... well, yikes.