Featured Image Credit: bay2nd/douyin
Topics: Science, Technology, China
Gerrard Kaonga
The future is definitely going to be weird as a video circulating online shows a small robot convincing bigger robots to come home with it.
Now this isn’t some new robot-focused dating TV show, but I suppose that might put people’s minds at more ease if it was.
But in actuality this was a test to see AI’s abilities when it comes to human interaction.
Well, this is a little more concerning if a robot can convince another to do things... I am sure this is the plot to Will Smith’s I-Robot.
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The video shows a tiny robot, named Erbai, approaching a bigger robot parked by a wall in a hall.
It asked: “Are you working overtime?”
To which the larger robot replied: “I never get off work.”
Erbai replies ‘come home with me’ and the pair then begin off down the hallway. Other robots seemed to seize the opportunity to desert their posts as well and started following the tiny robot.
According to Sky News, researchers didn’t expect the other robots to follow the smaller one and abandoned their positions.
A video of the bizarre interaction has started to do the rounds on social media.
The video was reportedly from a Chinese start-up's CCTV camera. The incident happened back in August but has only recently been released.
You would hope the company has figured out the kinks to prevent a robot uprising... or at least made themselves immune to the upcoming onslaught.
As you can imagine, people on Twitter haven’t taken well to this, warning people about everything from World War 3 to the robots unionizing.
One person commented: “Amazing!! However, i did find it worrying that the scientists weren't expecting the robot to leave, like can we make sure they are in control at all times!”
Another said: “Is this the one where Will Smith starts running after one of them? This is what happens when you have multi-billionaire’s with far too much time & money on their hands.”
A third also commented: “I thought the whole idea was for robots to just working 24/7 doing all the tasks we don't want to do. Great idea but now they're already [complaining] about work. Ffs.”
With another simply saying: “This is the start to the next Terminator film.”
Well, if things weren’t bad enough, we now have to worry about the robot apocalypse, oh goodie.