Boston Dynamics’ ATLAS Robot Is Now a Backflipping Cyborg Supersoldier

10 minutes ago, I was cautiously optimistic that one day we’d live and work side-by-side with robots in perfect harmony. Then Boston Dynamics posted a video of its ATLAS humanoid robot performing incredible jumps and backflips, and now I’m ready to go find a cave somewhere and hide. We haven’t seen much of ATLAS since Google sold Boston Dynamics to Softbank, aside from a few bloopers that gave humanity a false sense of superiority. But this brief one-minute video shows the robot jumping on and off platforms, spinning in the air, and performing a perfect backflip. A BACKFLIP! That’s the kind of thing you only see robots doing in the movies, but it’s apparently now our sobering reality. [YouTube]