Made at Penn, sold to IDF, used in Gaza... We say NO weapons manufacturers on Penn’s campus!

As University of Pennsylvania students, faculty, staff, alumni, parents, and Philadelphia community members, we demand that the University cut all financial, logistical, and academic ties with Ghost Robotics, located at Pennovation Works, effective immediately.

Founded in 2015 by two Penn graduate students Avik De and Gavin Kenneally, Ghost Robotics designs, manufactures, and sells four-legged robot dogs known as “Vision 60” units to the US and Allied governments. The company operates out of Pennovation Center on Grays Ferry Avenue and has received initial support from Penn’s PCI Ventures. Furthermore, the company receives significant tax breaks through Pennovation’s association with the Keystone Innovation Zone Tax Credit Program. The company routinely tests the robot dogs outdoors at Pennovation Works which has been witnessed and filmed by many community members. These remote-controlled robot dogs can be readily fitted with machine guns and drones and are marketed at military and defense conventions as outlined below. Ghost Robotics is currently the number one supplier of legged robots to US and Allied governments with 25+ national security contracts and more than 450+ units sold to date. The Department of Homeland Security has tested the Ghost Robotics’ robot dogs along the US-Mexico border.

Recent reports by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz and others unveiled that Ghost Robotics has sold Vision 60 units to the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) who deployed the robot dogs in Gaza and fitted them with aerial drones known as the “Rooster.”

Ghost Robotics declines to sign on to pledges to not weaponize their technology, and instead chooses to partner with companies that install weapons on the robots. Notably, CEO of the company Jiren Parikh said the following in 2021: “All we’re trying to do is allow them to use our robot in military and other government agency applications to keep our people from getting hurt… If it is a weapon that they need to put on our robot to do their job, we are happy for them to do that.”

Penn Professor Daniel E. Koditschek, who was the PhD supervisor of the company’s two founders, wrote a public letter addressed to the CEO in 2021: “We are deeply concerned by your recent decision to enter into active partnership toward the creation of an armed quadruped. My formerly proud connection to your company now impacts my reputation, is an affront to my research team, and I believe, corrupts the very aims and nature of robotics research.” Dr. Koditschek also stated that “...I am certain that this integration of guns with the emerging agility and eventual ubiquity of small legged machines transgresses a crucial ethical barrier." He added "...If hundreds of platforms are operated in this manner, persuasive arguments hold that such autonomously coordinated swarms amount to weapons of mass destruction.”

Ghost Robotics is effectively contributing to Israel’s genocide in Gaza and profiting from the slaughter, dispossession, and displacement of Palestinians. This direct relationship between Ghost Robotics, and therefore Penn, with the ongoing genocide in Gaza is unconscionable and violates the values of the Penn community and the University's stated mission to "benefit the individuals and communities around the world" and "use their cutting-edge research to effect positive change in peoples' lives around the world."

How the Ghost Robotics robot dogs are being weaponized

• Ghost Robotics Vision 60 units were first debuted at a conference in Washington, DC; in their debut, the robot dogs were “armed with a submachine gun with an advanced optic sight, thermal camera for night vision, and an ability to shoot up to a range of 1,200 meters.”
  

• Ghost Robotics’ website notes that they will attend numerous military and defense conventions in spring and summer of 2024, such as the Special Operations Forces conference in Tampa, and the conference for Military Robotics and Autonomous Systems in London.

• The US Army has tested Ghost Robotics’ robot dogs with several styles of mounted rifles such as the Sig Sauer XM5 NGSW and M4A1 carbine.
  

• The Ghost Robotics robot dogs can be used as docking stations for aerial drones and carry payloads up to 22 lbs. The robot dogs can be controlled by remote operators, and deployed with AI integration.
  

• South Korean arms manufacturer LIG Nex1 bought 60% shares in Ghost Robotics in late 2023. Notably, LIG Nex1 primarily develops weapons systems such as missiles, torpedoes, precision guided munitions, surveillance technologies, as well as unmanned systems and electronic warfare.
  

• Ghost Robotics’ partnerships with AI-integrated weapons manufacturers, such as Tomohawks Robotics AI, demonstrate their clear interest in operating the robotic dogs as part of an unmanned and lethal arsenal.
  

• Per UN General Assembly Resolution 78/241, international humanitarian and human rights laws apply to “lethal autonomous weapons systems.” This Resolution, taken together with the ethical concerns raised by Penn’s own robotics expert Dr. Koditschek, raises urgent concerns for the current and future direction of Ghost Robotics and their partnerships with AI-integrated weapons manufacturers.

Based on the company’s statements, existing contracts, and current use of the robot dogs by the IDF in Gaza, it is evident that the Ghost Robotics’ robot dogs are being positioned for continued and expanded military use. In line with this overwhelming evidence, we, the undersigned, demand that the University of Pennsylvania, including the School of Engineering & Applied Science, Pennovation Works, and Facilities & Real Estate Services, 1) cut all financial, logistical, and academic ties with Ghost Robotics, and 2) evict the company from Pennovation Works.

References:

Ghost Robotics https://www.ghostrobotics.io/

Haaretz: Gaza Becomes Israel's Testing Ground for Military Robots, March 2024 https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-03-03/ty-article-magazine/.premium/gaza-becomes-israels-testing-ground-for-remote-control-military-robots/

Kansas City Defender: The First Robot Genocide: Israel Experimenting with Dystopian Militarized Robot Dogs in Ongoing Extermination Campaign, March 2024  https://kansascitydefender.com/world/ai-genocide-gaza-urgent-call-action-against-tech-tyranny/

Robotican to Distribute Ghost Robotics' Vision 60 Quadruped Unmanned Ground Vehicle in Israel, Feb 2024  https://www.israeldefense.co.il/en/node/61210

The Defense Post: US Army Mulls Outfitting Robot Dogs With Next-Gen Squad Weapon, August 2023  https://www.thedefensepost.com/2023/08/30/us-army-robot-dogs-weapon/

Tomahawk Robotics AI-enabled  https://www.tomahawkrobotics.com/supported-systems

Antony Loewenstein’s The Palestine Laboratory: How Israel Exports the Technology of Occupation Around the World https://www.versobooks.com/products/2684-the-palestine-laboratory

Task & Purpose: Companies behind robot dogs asks countries not to arm the robot dogs, Oct 2022  https://taskandpurpose.com/tech-tactics/dont-arm-robot-dogs/

Forbes: Meet The Startup Behind The Robot ‘Dogs’ Set To Patrol The Southern Border, February 2022  www.forbes.com/sites/amyfeldman/2022/02/15/meet-the-startup-behind-the-robot-dogs-set-to-patrol-the-southern-border/

Prof Daniel Koditschek's letter to Ghost Robotics, Nov 2021 https://kodlab.seas.upenn.edu/news/koditscheks-letter-to-ghosts-ceo/

UN General Assembly Resolution 78/241 https://reachingcriticalwill.org/images/documents/Disarmament-fora/1com/1com23/resolutions/L56.pdf