Google’s purchase of bonkers robotics company Boston Dynamics in December prompted lots of hand-wringing: owning a Department of Defence supplier doesn’t jive with many people’s concept of “don’t be evil”. At the time, Google said it wasn’t interested in becoming a military contractor, and today’s rumour seems to confirm that: according to PopSci, Google is withdrawing its team from the DARPA Robotics Challenge.
PopSci quotes an unnamed source involved in the DARPA Robotics Challenge with the news, which Google so far hasn’t confirmed. This takes SCHAFT, the Google-owned team that won the Robotics Challenge in December, and Boston Dynamics, the Pentagon-funded maker of the ATLAS robot used by many Robotics Challenge teams, are both out of the military-backed competition.
While the rumour isn’t confirmed, it definitely corresponds with Google’s earlier assertion that it’s not interested in military contract work. And it takes most of the wind out of December’s breathless prognosticating over Google’s desire to get in to the military supplier business. Gizmodo has contacted Google for comment.
And just why wouldn’t Google want a piece of that pie? Well, Brian Gerkey of the Open Source Robotics Foundations tells PopSci that compared to Google’s current revenue streams, the military robotics business just isn’t big enough to interest the company. “Even the companies these days that are selling robots to the Defence Department are looking for other markets to sell robots to. You only ever need so many military robots in the world, and the size of that market pales in comparison to the consumer market,” Gerkey told PopSci.
So, everyone take a deep breath. Google isn’t assembling a robot army to take over the world. At least, not a robotic United States Army.
Update: We’ve corrected this piece to indicate that Google is allegedly withdrawing its SCHAFT team from the Robotics Challenge. Boston Dynamics, which supplies Robotics Challenge teams with its Atlas robot but does not itself compete, was not indicated in the original report.
Update 2: Google responded to our request for comment, saying “Google doesn’t comment on rumour and speculation.”
[PopSci]