Xpeng, a Chinese electric car company, sent social media abuzz with the launch of its new humanoid robot, iron. This robot seemed to be healed that Xpeng finally cut the robot open live on stage to prove that it was not just a human wearing a robot suit.
Mashable reporter Amnda Yeo was on hand at the AI Day event in Guangzhou, where iron made its big debut, and we’ll have more coverage of the event soon. Already, video footage of the iron is going viral on us and Chinese Media Media apps.
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You can also watch the entire press conference where iron has its electronic cables exposed to the world on Xpeng’s YouTube channel.
Iron cuts an impressive figure walking across the stage, not just because Xpeng decided to give the spoiled robot breasts, for some reason. To me, its slow, awkward movements evoked Scarlett Johansson in 2013’s Sci-Fi Trainer Under the skin. (OpenAI was accused of adding Johansson’s similarity to the original chatgpt voice.) Ex Machina and comes to mind, and the white metal webbing closely imitates the structure of robots in Westworld. There is also a popular trend that appears Terminator 2where Arnold Schwarzenegger cuts off his human shell to reveal a robotic arm underneath.
Science Fiction continues to shape the development and perception of robotics. Humans, in our bipedal form, are essentially a rough blueprint for robots, but engineers continue to build new humanoid robots. We can’t just help but create our creatures, obviously.
Bright light speed
In 2014, popular science wrote that humanoid robots were a weak confusion, and that is still true today, and these humanoid robots are still dealing with simple tasks such as walking or folding simple clothes.
Mashable was in the hands of the biggest metal drag in China this week.
Credit: Amanda Yeo / Mashable
Iron is by no means the first humanoid robot to go viral. Just that year, Tesla’s Optimus, Boston Dynamics’ Atlas, and the recently announced NEO Houser Helper Deactory BOT from X1 all had their 15 minutes of fame.
There’s just something about anthropomorphized robots that captures our attention, and scientists are still learning how the human mind reacts to humanoid robots. Maybe it’s the uncanny valley effect. Maybe it’s a feeling that we are subject to in the future. Maybe it’s a neurological reaction we don’t understand yet.
Whatever the reason, we’re simultaneously attracted to and flashed by robotics like steel, and companies like Xpeng are trying to go viral and gain attention, these are sure fire ways to generate headlines.
We can’t just look away.
