A video that purports to show one of Boston Dynamics’ robots practicing how to fight has racked up millions of views across social media. But the footage appears to be computer-generated.
Originally posted to TikTok on Saturday, the clip, which has more than 3.2 million views on the platform, alleges to show an Atlas robot in the woods doing a backflip before throwing a combination of punches.
@boston_dynamics #boston #dynamics #technology #digitaltechnology #robot #creative ♬ nhạc nền – Botsom_Dynamics
The following day, the video made its way to Twitter, where it managed to be seen over 1.7 million times.
“Why is Boston Dynamics teaching their robots how to fight?” a user who shared the video asked.
Many users on both social media sites appeared to view the footage as genuine while voicing their concerns over such technology.
“Holy crap!” one Twitter user wrote.
“Look what they are building,” a TikTok user said.
Yet many others, correctly so, questioned the validity of the clip. Dozens of users argued that the clip looked as if it had been made with CGI.
“This is clearly CGI. Good grief,” one said.
Several factors regarding the video confirm that it isn’t genuine. For starters, the account that originally shared the footage on TikTok uses the misspelled handle Bostom_Dynamics. Secondly, Boston Dynamics does not have a TikTok account.
The video does not appear anywhere on any of Boston Dynamics’ social media channels including its popular YouTube account. The Daily Dot reached out to Boston Dynamics for comment but did not hear back by press time.
A community note has since been added to the video on Twitter noting that the footage isn’t real. Users in the replies stated that the disclaimer from Twitter helped them to determine the video’s legitimacy.
“Thank you @CommunityNotes,” one user tweeted.
The video is just one of many, including those from the popular VFX YouTube channel “Corridor Crew,” which has used CGI in order to animate fake versions of Boston Dynamics’ robots.
