The Department of Homeland Security has decided to use robot dogs for the purpose of patrolling the United States’ southern border.
Ghost Robotics is the tech company that made it possible. Last year, it made a robodog with a rifle and now it has helped engineer the latest robodog to patrol the desert terrain in the American Southwest and call out any refugees who may be aiming to cross the border.
“The southern border can be an inhospitable place for man and beast, and that is exactly why a machine may excel there,” Brenda Long, program manager for the DHS’s research arm Science and Technology Directorate, said in the release.
These machines are also being called Terminator Dogs on social media these days.
“Has no one watched [B]lack [M]irror?!” wrote one. “In no world do we need robodogs hunting human beings.”
re has been another term in use for the description of these patrolling dogs: “force multiplier.” This term is given to the robots by the DHS. Once they get functional, they’ll be able to complete assignments such as sentry duty and carrying payloads across rough terrain.
The people who are in strong opposition to the idea of these robot dogs being used for patrolling state that this tool is “dehumanizing and invasive.”
“There’s a potential for these robots to increase the militarization of police departments and use it in ways that are unacceptable,” Jongwook Kim, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii, told the press. “Maybe it’s not something we even want to let law enforcement has.”
The use of robodogs in Customs and Border Patrol’s arsenal of weapons, tools, and tactics is quite off-putting. People are incredulous about this technology being used for security.