This robot spy dog is like 'Westworld' for animals
If it looks like a dog, walks like a dog, and barks like a dog, it's a robot built to spy on real dogs by making those dogs trust it so much they don't realize their entire lives are being recorded.
Surveillance, Westworld-style!
In order to get a better understanding of how wild dogs do wild dog things, the folks at PBS' Spy in the Wild put a life-like creature out in the, uh, wild, and waited for other wild dogs to come sniffing.
The robot, equipped with 24 moving parts, cocks its head and stretches and yips just like you'd expect a wild dog to, and its flesh-and-blood counterparts don't seem to be able to tell the difference. Aside from the lifeless eyes, "spy pup" is kinda cute.
But then the video pulls back all the fur to reveal a mess of wires and ivory-white "bones" that look like something that would happen if a skeleton and a drone had a baby, all the while giving off serious Westworld-esque creeps.
And what if, like, other people are doing this to us? What if there are people robots doing people things and making people sounds who are actually people bots meant to spy on us? Perhaps I am now a conspiracy theorist.
Topics Privacy
Colin is Mashable's US & World Reporter. He previously interned at Foreign Policy magazine and The American Prospect. Colin is a graduate from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. When he's not at Mashable, you can most likely find him eating or playing some kind of sport.
