CEO Gets Obliterated By Kick From His Company's Robot To Prove It Isn't CGI
Couldn't he have just had it fold some clothes?
We're in the midst of a robotic arms race with companies around the globe trying to show why their bot reigns supreme.
Some are doing well on this front, while others — *cough* the Russians *cough* — are quite literally stumbling.
However, I think the leader in the clubhouse right now has to be the folks at EngineAI.
Why? Because the CEO of the Chinese robo-firm just let one of the robots absolutely smoke him with a robo-kick.
The company was recently showing off its latest creation, a humanoid robot called the T800.
By the way, they're getting dangerously close to T-1000. Let's maybe reel it in a little bit, especially after they decided to dispute claims that the T800 was the work of CGI.
CEO Zhao Tongyang threw on some gear and gave the robot a target to kick like it was in camp ahead of an MMA fight.
However, the T800 isn't quite as flexible as he was thinking, and the robot missed the pad completely, and instead clobbered Zhao with a robo-boot straight to the ol' breadbasket.
I suppose that is one way to prove the haters wrong. I think they probably could've just had it fold some clothes or empty a dishwasher, but having it try to shatter the boss's ribs works too. Still, even after the video people are still expresssing doubts about the robots authenticity.
I've got mixed feelings about this.
I like that the CEO put himself on the line instead of making an intern do it. That was cool of him.
But what I don't like is that we're even teaching robots how to do martial arts and giving them a taste of what it's like to kick a human straight to the solar plexus.
What if one is like, "*Beep bloop* — That was fun — *boop beep*!" and goes on a Jean-Claude Van Damme-style kicking rampage?
We've all seen enough movies to know how this goes.
Maybe those movies aren't available in China, and if they're not, they should really start reconsidering that.