Army Testing Robot Dogs

"Army Testing Robot Dogs Armed with Artificial Intelligence-Enabled Rifles in Middle East"

After some research and thinking, we are a long way from being able to replace real dogs or soldiers with robots. 

Consider The Terminator, first movie. That technology doesn't exist. Putting a dog's abilities in to a drone doesn't exist, either.

If you have messed around a bit with AI (artificial intelligence) applications, they aren't all that intelligent. They are pretty dumb. Computers are good for crunching numbers, or doing word searches. But for real world style thinking, it just isn't there. 

Consider the complications of dating. Think of all the complex things it takes to go from asking someone out to getting married. No existing computer could do all of that today. No one would fall in love with a robot, even with a lifelike body, using the very best AI computers. The ability to negotiate something like that is significantly beyond what any computer can do. Now, imagine a robot, of any configuration, going into combat and fighting against a human. There is a lot more to combat than shooting a rifle. There is strategy, camouflage, negotiation, spy craft, deception techniques, concepts of good and evil, coordination with plans and goals of the nation you represent, and on and on. Included in all of this is the lack of sensory abilities and processing compared to living organisms. We can perceive things a computer can't. Same with a dog.

I think there are uses for such technology. Hopefully, the US military is consulting with top K9 trainers to help enhance whatever they are developing to give them insight into the behaviors that make a dog useful in combat.