China Shows Off Robot Dogs Armed With Machine Guns

The Chinese military recently showed off numerous robot dogs outfitted with machine guns on their backs during the country's biggest-ever drill alongside Cambodian troops, as Agence France-Presse reports.

The terrifying gun-toting robodogs were part of a massive 15-day military exercise called "Golden Dragon" in a remote training center in central Cambodia and off the country's coast.

During the drill, journalists watched as staff took the robodogs for a walk — but reportedly never fired the machine guns strapped to their backs.

It's a dystopian vision of what the future of warfare could look like. Experts have long warned that the use of armed drones or "killer robots," particularly autonomous ones, is an ethical minefield that should be internationally banned from the battlefield.

But that hasn't stopped military forces and even local enforcement in the US from investing in the tech while arguing that their use could save human lives.