The New York Fire Department reportedly released their latest team member information, while Boston Dynamics' robot dog Spot will once again become a "firefighter."
The New York Fire Department said Boston Dynamics announced that spot, a robot dog priced at up to $75,000, will be used to help firefighters, who will be responsible for search and rescue missions.
Less than a year ago, the NYPD also announced that it would use robot dogs for missions, but the agency had to abandon the plan shortly after, because of concerns that robot dogs could invade privacy.
In an interview with the media, Michael Leo, captain of the New York Fire Department's Robotics Division, assured that using these robotic dogs was safe behavior and that it would "save lives."
"The television industry and the film industry hurt us in some ways because they often show images of robots being used as weapons, and then people think that all robots are like that," he said. But our purpose is to save lives, and that's the core thing. These robots will save people's lives. ”
The robot dog will be remotely controlled by a human operator, capable of collecting images and data during dangerous search and rescue missions, and it will also measure the concentration of dangerous gases, providing rescuers with critical information. The fire department said the robot dogs would only collect data on the condition of hazardous materials.
However, Albert Fox Cahn, an attorney at NYU Law School, has expressed concern about how robots collect and use data in the future.
In an interview, he said: "It would be great if it was really used to keep firefighters safe. Yet history has proven many times that even if it were first used in a convincing case, there would be more in the future, such as when it was used in more and more situations, until it entered some field where there was no reason for it. ”
Last April, Boston Dynamics was forced to terminate its contract with the NYPD over concerns about the privacy of the robot dogs, fearing they would be "disturbing."
The NYPD tested the robots in an arrest operation in a public housing complex in Manhattan and then used them in a hostage incident in the Bronx, a move that sparked outrage.
Congressman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez described the dog as "a drone on the ground used to monitor people," while the American Civil Liberties Union expressed concern that if left unchecked, it would one day make law enforcement decisions.
Source: Sina Technology