Google's recent buy-up of robotic companies like Boston Dynamics have caused a buzz about what the company has in mind for their "moonshot" robotics department.
Google confirmed the purchase of Boston Dynamics, known for their work with the government and their predator-like robots, Reuters reported. The other companies include Redwood Robots, Holomni, Bot & Dolly, Autofuss, Meka Robotics, Schaft and Industrial Perception.
Boston Dynamics, based in Waltham, Massachusetts, was founded in 1992 and works with the U.S. Army, Navy, Marine Corps and the Defense Department's Advanced Research Projects Agency, according to Reuters.
Shortly after word got out about Google's eighth purchase, questions arose on tech site across the board about what Google was planning; world domination or will they stand by their motto of "Don't be Evil?"
"At first gasp, the answer might seem to be, 'conquering the world,'" read one story from Slate.com. "But that doesn't seem to be the goal-at least, not in a military sense."
In fact, Google told the New York Times it plans on honoring the Boston Dynamics existing contracts, like the $10.8 million deal with DARPA to develop a new prototype which can be used to aid in disaster relief.
Google also told the Times it does not intend to act as a military contractor.
Illah Nourbakhsh, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University and author of "Robot Futures" said before Google released their statement that the only reason for Google to buy Boston Dynamics would be to create androids, adding that it may not be a bad thing, according to Yahoo.com.
"The only reason to buy this company is to make complete androids, systems that can walk around on our sidewalks and right up to our homes," Nourbakhsh said, adding that androids of this type could be extremely useful, but also have the chance of being invasive, Yahoo reported.
According to Slate.com's Will Oremus, this move is just a normal extension that comes as result of the company's huge interest in artificial intelligence since the company has worked for years on teaching machines to understand language, make sense of images and videos, and navigate real-world environments.
