Recently, Massachusetts State Police has leased Spot, a quadruped robot developed by Boston Dynamics, for three months. This action has caused concerns among critics of the future of robots and artificial intelligence.

Boston Dynamics is an American robot design company headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts. Founded in 1992 as a spin-off from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and later purchased by alphabet, Boston Dynamics is now owned by the Japanese conglomerate SoftBank Group. 

The most well known product of the company is undoubtedly Big Dog, a quadruped military robot that was primarily designed to traverse through all kinds of terrain, carrying up to 150kg of payload. The use of four legs makes it capable to perform many kinds of locomotion, such as stand up, sit down, crawling walk, and moving with different uses of legs.  

The current projects of Boston Dynamics revolve around solving real life problems with robots.The aforementioned robot, Spot, is similar to Big Dog. With advanced technology, Spot is very nimble. It is capable of using both indoors and outdoors with IP54 ingress protection and -20°C to 45°C operating environment. The robot itself is entirely programmable with a user friendly IDE and python programming language. Furthermore,to increase its functionality, Boston Dynamics also developed several payloads, for example, Spot ARM™ can be used to open or grasp objects and Spot CAM™ can capture 360° spherical images. These attachments enable Spot to perform different kinds of functions such as carrying heavy objects, manipulating explosives, and patrolling. Another project of Boston Dynamics, Atlas, is a humanoid robot. Though currently not for sale, it can mimic human movements almost perfectly. According to many released videos from Boston Dynamics, Atlas is now capable of performing many human actions not limited to jumping, backflipping, climbing stairs, placing boxes, and even performing a set of gymnastics. 

With all this advanced usability, AI robots will definitely be more and more popular in the future for their ability to substitute humans and operate under hazardous environment. For instance, they can be used to disarm dangerous bombs, transport dangerous materials, inspect areas remotely, etc. Furthermore, they can also be used in other areas such as education, surveillance and medicine. The advanced AI system allows robots to detect objects, translate languages, and even drive a car. 

However, the quick advancement of robotics also raises concerns. Many people believe that robots would eventually take away their jobs as machines can perform more and more actions. Safety has always been the biggest concern regarding programmed machines. Some believe that autonomous weapons are not secure. If exploited by malicious people, these weapons would be programmed to cause wide destruction. Therefore, the use of robots as weapons has always been controversial. Furthermore, many people are fearful that one day artificial intelligence will develop their own perspectives and turn against humans just like the scene illustrated in I, Robot. 

As the development of robots continues, there will be many more innovative companies like Boston Dynamics, and robots will become part of daily life. Therefore, people should embrace technology while being cautious.