Case study: mistaking CGI for miltech #
In public discourse, military AI and autonomous weapons are often depicted with exaggerated expectations. The following example demonstrates the mixing of the fictional and the real.
2019: the beginning #
On 26 Oct 2019, Corridor Digital—a media company that offers CGI video production services—published a video titled “New Robot Makes Soldiers Obsolete” depicting a robot character loosely resembling Boston Dynamics technologies. The video was intended mainly as a showcase of what kind of effects the company can produce in CGI.
Despite the explicit watermark “Bosstown Dynamics” in the lower right corner, many people mistakenly took it for the real Boston Dynamics bipedal robots and caused an uproar in social media.
WE ARE FUCKED.
— Joe Rogan (@joerogan) October 26, 2019
Boston Dynamics: New Robot Makes Soldiers Obsolete https://t.co/u6DzRwgvwZ via @YouTube
Fact-checking the video #
The video went viral and prompted media outlets to do “fact checks”, eventually “debunking” the video (which was never intended as a misinformation campaign in the first place).
details
Further sharing on social media #
Other social media users shared the video, acknowledging it as a parody or staged production. Nevertheless, several were tempted to extrapolate the fictional topic to real-world future.
If this video by @BostonDynamics is true, robots made soldiers obsolete. The future of battlefields are changing.
— Mohammed Almeshekah (@meshekah) October 27, 2019
But, I can’t stop thinking of what could go wrong if this robot 🤖 get hacked! pic.twitter.com/pZXAhZUCBk
The blog post referring to the above tweets »Boston Dynamics’ new robot makes soldiers obsolete.
— Jinbo Liang (@JinboLiang) October 31, 2019
LA-based studio Corridor @corridordigital created a dystopian world for robots by using CGI.
via @gigadgets_ #cgi #robotics #soldier #futuristic pic.twitter.com/yenZoJtlCK
Corridor Digital’s response to the viral reaction #
As a response, Corridor crew recorded another video with before-and-after images showing the initial actor for the robot, and the CGI results, posted on 31 Oct 2019.
2021 #
On 19 Sep 2021, Corridor posted yet another video explaining how they made the first one, and explaining some ways of how one can tell from the imagery that it is CGI-edited, not a real video of real objects.
2022: the reuptake #
In January 2022, the original parody video was picked up again and started making rounds in social media.
The Boston Dynamics robot went from doing cute dancing moves to becoming an unstoppable fighting machine.
— Jesse Cohen (@JesseCohenInv) January 15, 2022
Good luck to us all when the robot uprising begins. pic.twitter.com/uDjM1KBwPg
This prompted new “fact check” articles.
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Remixes of Corridor’s video #
A video from 18 Sep 2022 remixes moments from the Corridor video with frames from real Boston Dynamics product tests. While acknowledging the Corridor video as a parody, it still presents the CGI vision as if depicting an idea of “what the future will look like” and stressing that “we are not far behind”.
XKCD take on Corridor #
Adapted from ai & society nextbook