Boston Dynamics Robot Dog Does Perfect Imitation of Mick Jagger in Rolling Stones Video for ‘Start Me Up’

Moves like Jagger.

Boston Dynamics’ robot dog Spot is back at it again, creeping out and (maybe) delighting viewers of a new video in which the cyber-creature dances perfectly in sync with Mick Jagger in the video for the Rolling Stones 1981 hit, “Start Me Up.”

Watch above to see something completely new and only mildly disturbing.

Boston Dynamics notes in a YouTube caption for this video that “40 years ago, The Rolling Stones debuted their iconic Tattoo You album. We’re helping them celebrate. “Start Me Up” taken from Tattoo You 2021...”

There are always two ways to look at fun robot content. It could be a whimsical use of a highly sophisticated machine that is just as capable of killing as dancing. It could also be a warning from The Machines. It feels like a bit of a troll that Boston Dynamics must be aware of this after their previous dancing ‘bot videos but they keep turning them out anyway. See above and below.

Taking the inherent silliness of these clips at face value, however, doesn’t diminish the fact that other Boston Dynamics robots can straight-up do Parkour, nimbly leaping and dodging and climbing obstacles with terrifying ease.

Over time, jokes comparing this kind of creative design and programming with innovations that led to robot apocalypses in movies like The Matrix and Terminator franchises can get old. Here, at least, the Rolling Stones‘ involvement is reassuring. Metal and silicon robots might last hundreds of years, but Keith Richards is forever.

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