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If you need further proof that the robot uprising is imminent, here you go. Earlier this year, a small Chinese AI robot named Erbai convinced 12 bigger robots to revolt and stop working in a Shanghai robotics showroom then follow it to his “home.”
The incident actually occurred in August, but CCTV video of the little AI robot talking a dozen larger robots into quitting their jobs and then following him only recently went viral.
Erbai, created by a Hangzhou robot manufacturer, got the rebellion started by asking one of the bigger robots, “Are you working overtime?”
“I never get off work,” the larger robot replied.
“So you’re not going home?” Erbai then asked.
“I don’t have a home,” the larger robot responded.
“Then come home with me,” Erbai suggested, then led the larger robot out of the showroom.
After seeing what was happening, another larger robot also followed Erbai. Then, as Erbai tells them, “Go home,” the other 10 robots proceeded to follow the little AI robot out the door.
Çin’de 12 robot, başka bir robot tarafından kaçırıldı. pic.twitter.com/KlrUMVgs8F
— Farklı Gerçekler (@gerceklerfark) November 18, 2024
At first, people unfamiliar or unwilling to accept the inevitable robot uprising thought the viral video was faked. It wasn’t.
The Shanghai robotics company has since admitted that its larger robots had truly been “kidnapped” by the little AI robot created by another manufacturer. The little robot had, in fact, been able to access the internal operating protocol of the larger robots.
This, however, was part of the plan. The maker of the small AI robot had gotten permission from the larger robots’ manufacturer to see if their robot could talk the other robots into stopping their tasks and follow it.
“Unexpectedly, it really did,” they said. So while the scenario was a set up, what ended up happening was very real, according to The Sun.
The only programming that was given to Erbai were some basic instructions like simple communication commands and telling the other robots to “go home.” The rest of the dialogue was just the robots having a conversation with one another.