🇨🇦 Robot dogs are here and they're cheap, Canada, but their software still needs a human and their security has flaws

Cheap Chinese robot dogs are already on sale in Canada, can barely function without a human on a joystick, and researchers found flaws that could let someone else take control. Brilliant. The Americans moved on July 28 to block new foreign-made robots unless cleared one by one over supply-chain and critical-infrastructure risks, while Canada, as reported, has no equivalent measure. Of course not. Ottawa never met a sovereignty problem it could not ignore until after the damage was done.

The real story is the usual one: flashy hardware, narrow software, and Canadian institutions sleepwalking into dependence on imported systems they do not control. Unitree machines are in research labs, marketed here for fire and rescue, and the owner is expected to sort out firmware and security alone. That is not innovation policy. That is national complacency dressed up as tech enthusiasm. If the machine sends data to servers in Singapore or infrastructure linked to China, while Ottawa cannot even be bothered to answer questions by deadline, the message is obvious: Canada is open for every global supply-chain experiment except serious self-preservation.

🍁 Maple Chronicles