Watch: Humanoid Atlas and Spot the Robot-dog wishes you a happy 2021 [video]

Spot the Robot Dog made headlines back in 2018 when Boston Dynamics shared several videos of the robotic creature – dancing to Bruno Mars and opening doors. It had most people concerned.

Three months later, the company was back with another reveal: Atlas, a humanoid robot capable of an impressive parkour and gymnastics routine, including somersaults, handstands, 360-degree spinning jumps and split leaps.

Then when the COVID-19 pandemic forced most of the world’s population into lockdowns and quarantine, a Spot robot dog was spotted in Singapore, we’re it reminded terrified pedestrians to observe social distancing protocols.

Happy 2021 from Boston Dynamics

Boston Dynamics now wants to wish you a prosperous new year, and shared a short video of their robots doing a choreographed dance. The post was captioned:

“Our whole crew got together to celebrate the start of what we hope will be a happier year. Happy New Year from all of us at Boston Dynamics.”

Do you love Boston Dynamics’ Atlas and Spot?

Boston Dynamics is at it again and released a new video – which went viral nearly instantly, of course – of Spot, Atlas and some of their new friends dancing to the Contours’ Do You Love Me.

The robotic choreographed moves are quite impressive, if frightening. Other than Spot and two Atlas humanoids making an appearance, the company’s latest creation, Handle, also struts it stuff on the dance floor.

Handle looks a bit like an ostrich? Elon Musk agrees. He said on Twitter that the “snake-head dog had my undivided attention until winder-head ostrich came gliding through all nonchalant”.

The inevitable robot uprising

It should be noted that both Joe Rogan and Elon Musk have in the past expressed concern about the technological advances in the robotics industry.

Back in 2018, Musk voiced his concerns that the exponential growth with regards to robotics and artificial intelligence will eventually create an entity outside of the scope of human control.

“Robots will be able to do everything better than us. … I mean all of us. Yeah, I am not sure exactly what to do about this. This is really the scariest problem to me, I will tell you”.

Boston Dynamics in a nutshell

Boston Dynamics is an American engineering and robotics design company which was founded in 1992 as a spin-off from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. And they love to build robots.

Not just any old robot. You’ve seen what Atlas and Spot can do. Boston Dynamics isn’t the leader in intelligent robot design and creation for nothing. They build the strongest and most intelligent robots known to mankind.

One day, in the not-so-far into the future, we might look back at how the robot uprising started and find that Boston Dynamics was the origin. Until that time, we marvel at their excellence and secretly wish we could afford Spot.

Personally, when it comes to the future of humanity in terms of robots and artificial intelligence, I’m with Gilfoyle on this… All hail our robotic and digital overlords. Note, this clip contains swearing.

Also read: Boston Dynamics say robots ‘not evil’ as Spot humanoids go viral