While everyone was worried about Watson rising up and going all Skynet on us humans, the basketball-playing robot seals decided this would be their time.

OK, it’s actually just one basketball-playing robot seal. And there’s no behemoth like IBM or Cyberdyne behind the engineering know-how that went into this cute, claw-mouthed, hoops-driven e-seal. Instead, it’s the handiwork of scientists at Taiwan’s National Chiao-Tung University. And yes, it’s a toy basketball instead of a regulation-size, NBA-ready ball. And yes, it’s being done a miniaturized hoop and backboard.

But if you’re going to get hung up on small details like those, you’re going to miss the larger picture, in that this is a robot seal that can sink baskets at a 99 percent clip.