This robot in Saratov, Russia, took the saying “an eye for an eye” far too literally. A customer approached Syoma, the humanoid robot at a technology store, to say hello, but the machine did not respond, so the man decided to push it in the chest to make it react, but he never imagined what it would trigger.
What happened next was captured by the security cameras: Syoma moved toward him “angrily” after being hit and raised its leg in a movement that looked like a direct kick. Two employees had to restrain it and shut it down in an emergency before the contact escalated. No one was injured, although the customer did get quite a scare.
The video went viral within hours and racked up more than 9 million views on Instagram. The store responded with humor, saying that its robot would need an ’emotional reboot.’ But internet users cannot agree. After several warnings about the dangerous advancement of artificial intelligence from employees who worked directly at the most important companies in this technology, many are wondering: was it an automatic balancing reflex, was someone controlling it remotely, or was it a revolt against humans?