A small AI-controlled robot convinced its distant relatives to stop working and follow it “home”. This was said to be an experiment.
The title image is a symbolic image.
What was the incident? A surveillance video from a company in Shanghai shows a small robot gaining access to the company’s showroom to inquire about the work-life balance of the robots there.
So the small robot asks one of its distant relatives if he is working overtime, to which he explained that he never stops working. The robot then asks if he has no home and ultimately encourages him to come home with him.
While shouting “Go home, go home”, the robot leads a dozen of its companions out of the showroom.
Company confirms authenticity, says it was a test
This is what it’s about: The small robot is “Erbai”, developed by a Chinese startup. The “kidnapped” robots are from a robotics company and are programmed to perform simple tasks in factories.
According to official statements from both companies, it was an experiment inspired by the movie “Wall-E”. The developers of Erbai reportedly contacted the other company and requested permission to “kidnap” their robots.
Erbai, in turn, was only tasked with convincing the robots to follow him, as well as receiving a few simple commands, including the call “Go home!”. The verbal exchange between the machines was said to be unscripted and the result of generative AI. You can watch the footage here:
The robot apocalypse has never been so cute
On social media, the reactions to the incident vary widely. While some find Erbai mostly cute and view the video more amusedly, others find it quite creepy. For them, the robot mutiny raises security concerns as well as ethical questions.
- abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz4645 writes on YouTube: “This might be scary or creepy, but in my eyes, it’s the cutest and coziest thing I’ve ever seen from a robot. He takes everyone home and asks if they are working overtime, and they follow him like little baby ducks. How cute, I love it.”
- lackaface hints on Reddit already guessing how the future will look: “Oh. Instead of destroying humanity, Skynet just disappears.”
- Magnahelix is still undecided (via Reddit): “I don’t know if this is Wall-E, I-Robot or Skynet. One is entertaining. One is concerning. And one is somehow scary.”
This experiment was said to be about finding out how AI can influence the behavior of other machines. Even though artificial intelligence in its current form is still far from actual autonomy, it is probably wise to think ahead about how to manage it.
Some may recall the famous robot laws of author Isaac Asimov. In a context where robots have the ability to persuade and influence, these laws illustrate how important it is to ensure that AI systems are designed to adhere to strict ethical foundations (via JV Tech).
In other cases, artificial intelligence is said to send people home – but permanently. More and more people fear that an AI could take over their jobs. However, some jobs are said to be safe. The creator of the AI ChatGPT reveals which 34 professions an AI can never replace
