Boston Dynamics and five other companies have signed an open letter saying they don't want to weaponize general-purposerobots.
According to the six leading tech firms, advanced robots could result in huge benefits in our work and home lives, but they may also be used for criminal purposes.
They said that people could use them to threaten, harm, or intimidate others.
Adding weapons to robots that are remotely or autonomously operated, widely available to the public, raises new risks of harm and serious ethical issues.
The firms pledged not to use the software that makes them function as a weapon. They said they would try to make sure their customers didn't use weapons.
They said they don't mind that governments use existing technologies todefend themselves and uphold their laws.
According to Boston Dynamics' website, police and fire departments are using the company's dog-like robot Spot to assess risky situations, but the firm says Spot is not designed for surveilling or replacing police officers.
The Stop Killer Robots campaign says nearly 100 countries and a majority of people oppose the use of autonomously operated weapons.
A meeting of the United Nations Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons last year failed to reach a consensus because of objections from countries like the U.S., the UK and Russia, CNBC reported.
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