Jeff Bezos Walked with a Boston Dynamics SpotMini Robot

Jeff Bezos and his freaky robot dog have been unleashed.

On Monday evening, the Amazon founder tweeted a sparkling, sun-drenched picture framed as if to convince us there’s absolutely nothing ominous about the man who runs a company poised to take over the world in lock-step with a robot made by Boston Dynamics, another entity that leans toward global domination and making humans obsolete.

Taking my new dog for a walk at the #MARS2018 conference. #BostonDynamics pic.twitter.com/vE6CXrvV3o

— Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) March 19, 2018

The photo is unsettling. The caption, strange. First, it’s a robot. It’s not a “dog.” There’s no fluff, there’s no slobber, and there’s no way you could ever name this thing Pluto, Bo, or Tinkerbell and have it not be incredibly weird. Second, Bezos is absolutely not taking the not-dog “for a walk.” It’s a robot. It walks on its own. It’s not normal. It’s not even on a leash, and Bezos, for all intents and purposes, is merely looking cool next to a mysterious, scary machine that can open doors on its own.

Bezos and his automated friend that shares no DNA with Beethoven, Balto, or Lassie, were spotted sauntering down the street at Amazon’s MARS 2018 festival. The exclusive conference focuses on machine learning, home automation, robotics, and space exploration, according to Business Insider. It appears as if Boston Dynamics, the Waltham-based company infamous for its unsettling, back-flipping creations, has caught Bezos’s attention at the festival with its notorious SpotMini robot.

The SpotMini, which runs on batteries and is thusly not a dog, is less than three feet tall, weighs just over 66 pounds, and can do things like walk, crouch, and wiggle on its own. It can also pick up cups, load a dishwasher, and recycle an empty can of root beer, so at least our future robot overlords are eco-friendly.