While the PERDIX micro-drone swarm may not be equipped with weapons yet, a proof-of-concept was displayed by researchers which shows that the technology to make micro-drones lethal already exists. This short demonstration is meant to show what is possible with current and readily-available technology. 
 
But perhaps the most frightening of the killer robots aren't the ones in the sky, but rather the ones that are inspired by the human body. Boston Dynamics' Atlas robot is the closest thing to the Terminator that has been revealed by the cutting edge robotics company. The company recently revealed the latest iteration of the Atlas robot is capable of not just walking and jumping, but also running.
 
Couple the Atlas robot with the latest breakthroughs in "machine learning" and you get a fully autonomous, self-learning robot that is both aware of itself and capable of repairing and even improving itself. That may seem like an impossible idea, but according to Elon Musk, the Terminator might not be as far out as we think. 
 
Lifelike robots with artificial intelligence and superhuman abilities may be just a handful of years away from being combined with state of the art robotics such as Atlas. Nick Patterson, a lecturer and cybersecurity researcher at Deacybersecurity said that robots such as the sex robots currently for sale can pose a threat to their owners if they are hacked. A group of security researchers even exploited authentication protocols within the Nao, Pepper, and Alpha robots to take control of them remotely. The result was a robot that could kill on command.
 
Maybe humans really are on the verge of giving birth to a new, digital form of life that may say, "Hey, why even keep these pesky humans around?" A humanoid robot with the ability to learn far faster than a human and even self-heal is probably not that far out. It's not just the robots we have to worry about, it's the hackers with the ability to turn simple robots into killing machines. If all these technologies exist today and are searchable in the public domain, what kind of technology is already lurking behind closed doors in Unacknowledged Special Access Programs darkest corners of governments' secret labs and billionaire's basements?
