As a robotics platform, there's nothing inherently weaponizable about quadrupedal locomotion over, say, a quadcopter. Weaponizing this system would be almost as difficult as developing and then weaponizing the system.

State actors already have the weapons, so it is not complicated to attach those to a tool capable of ferrying them over rugged terrain, with long battery life, and into hiding places of human opponends. Just as they attached them to drones, cars, and other gear. What guarantees that the biggest use cases and the most motivated users of this technology are not deadly? Maybe license?

State actors aren't the threat to worry about here. They have much more controlled and reliable ways of killing you and if they decide to weaponize a mobile platform like this they are likely to fund or steal much more purpose-built technology.

If you're worried about weaponization of open source projects, your threat actors are just about any person with a computer, a couple thousand dollars and a grudge.

Yep, already happening.

Boston Dynamics robot with gun: Quote: "At the Association of the US Army’s annual conference last week, Ghost Robotics unveiled its Vision 60 quadrupedal robot, which wielded a custom-made gun atop its already eerie figure."

https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/328299-robot-dogs-now-fi...

Yeah but non state actors don't. Just imagine dropping of robots with a gun from a car or send them via package. A 360 camera and a gun is a scary combination and as long as you use them in a suicide manner it doesn't even need to recognize friendly combatants or spare children. Just shoot everything that's bigger than rat and moves until the magazine is empty while moving patrolling the streets.

I am skeptical that licensing could stop someone from using a project as the basis for a weapon - I doubt lawsuits would seem like much of a deterrent.

That said, I am not sure that a quadruped robot is much better for delivering a bomb than an RC car, other than a slight edge on rough terrain. Both would have an advantage over flying, since weight is a problem for drones.

Eh, robots are tools, and like most, they'll be used and abused. ANYmal and Boston Dynamics Spot are currently being used for automated site inspections, and most of the top spots for the recent DARPA subterranean challenge were legged robots [1]. Of course, you also have companies like Ghost Robotics which are weaponising their platform [2]. Should we have not made airplanes because someone would eventually put bombs on them?

I'm sure there's a lot more philosophical depth to the topic, and perhaps my quick dismissal of your criticism is equally unproductive as your comment, but I see a use-case for these (frankly super cool) robots in every day society/workplaces.

[1]: https://www.subtchallenge.com/results.html [2]: https://www.engadget.com/robot-dog-gun-ghost-robotics-sword-...

Ghost robotics design is a joke. You lose a really a lot of fire power by not being able to turn turn the gun.