Bosstown Dynamics

Nicholas Spiller
Nov 1 · 3 min read
Hoax Photo

A video posted this fall (2019) appears to be showing a robot that is identical to the robot made by Boston Dynamics a company that is working on highly sophisticated robots, however the video is of a robot shooting guns with precision aim while getting pushed and beat by the humans training it, until it eventually turns the gun to the humans fires at them and flees. However, after looking closer at the video you will see the watermark “Bosstown Dynamics” and not “Boston Dynamics”, and later a video was released of behind the scenes of how it was a CGI hoax.


When this video was originally posted there was a huge divide of people claiming it was real and the people claiming it was obviously CGI, however with the real videos posted by Boston Dynamics showing robots doing normal tasks, it is easy to understand how someone could believe this is true due to it being so close to being a reality. You can find videos on youtube posted by Boston Dynamics of the robot named “Atlas” performing gymnastic stunts. The fake video was posted by the popular Youtube channel “Corridor Crew” they are known for doing videos on CGI and reviewing stunts and CGI in movies. The behind the scenes video that was later released to relieve everyone that a killer AI robot isn’t really on the loose with guns shows some very interesting techniques used to pull off hoax’s using CGI

Behind the scenes video posted by the Corridor Crew

The claim that is often used “Fake this is CGI” seems to be used a lot and even on videos that are 100% real. This is because of CGI influencers it is an industry that using fake videos to profit. A quote by Chloe Holt “ Essentially, CGI influencers have the capacity to be anything that anyone wants them to be. They have been created to mimic the lives of real influencers but can be controlled in any way, whether that be in a social setting or to raise awareness for a political issue. Many brands have jumped on the bandwagon and allow them to have complete control over the influencer marketing they want to produce — from the placement of the actual image or what they want the influencer to say.” The truth is CGI is becoming so good that it is hard to distinguish it from reality, but we need not forget that real unbelievable things do still happen. For example, the next image provided is the real “Boston Dynamics” robots which are pretty much capable of doing everything in the fake video.

The real Boston Dynamics robots

The internet has become a wild place especially as technology advances and it is a great thing that we are advancing. Nevertheless, it is important to never forget that someone will always try to use new things to profit off of and that fake videos and news stories will be fed to you, however with a little bit of understanding of new technologies and research you can find out if it is true or not.


WORKS CITED

Palma, Bethania, and Bethania Palma. “Does a Video Show an Armed Robot Turning on Humans?” Snopes.com, https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/armed-robot-video/.

Holt, Chloe. “The Rise Of The ‘Fake’ Influencer: CGI In Influencer Marketing.” Medium, The Startup, 9 July 2019, https://medium.com/swlh/the-rise-of-the-fake-influencer-cgi-in-influencer-marketing-94b3e8a077f9.

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