By Melvin Durai
During a recent public dance demonstration in China’s Shaanxi province, a humanoid robot performed kicks and twirls to the delight of adults and children. But things went awry when the robot strayed to the edge of the cordoned-off area. As it made a twirl, it slapped a young boy.
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The robot was arrested and charged with battery. It appeared before a judge and made a plea — to have its battery charged. The judge had no mercy, giving it the harshest sentence ever imposed on a humanoid: “No battery charge for three months, no public dancing for six months, and no Netflix for one year.”
Actually, I do not know if the robot faced any consequences for its actions. In a video shared widely online, the robot’s handlers immediately directed it toward the centre of the performance area, where it continued dancing, seemingly unaware that it had not only struck a child but damaged the reputation of the entire robotic community. (The child, thankfully, seemed to be mostly stunned, not seriously hurt.) According to news reports, the robot appeared to be a G1 humanoid, created by Chinese tech firm Unitree Robotics for research, education and commercial applications.
I’m not sure which of those applications pertains to public dancing, not to mention public violence. What’s clear to me is that if a robot can strike a child, some parents will not want robots near their children, while others will wonder if robots can be used to discipline their children. Father: “You’d better have yourself or I’m going to summon the robot.” Teenaged son: “No, not the robot! I don’t want to be slapped.” Father: “It won’t slap you. I’ve programmed it to use a belt.” Son: “Oh no, you’ve programmed it to leave a welt. That’s child abuse!” Father: “You said the same thing when I smacked your butt with my hand.” Son: “Those were the good old days. Such pleasant memories.” Thankfully for children everywhere, it will be a long time before robots are sophisticated enough to punish them, not to mention affordable enough.
The G1 humanoid costs about $13,500 (Rs 12.5 lakh). That’s a lot of money to spend on a machine that might accidentally slap you. The child in Shaanxi province was hardly the first victim of a robot. Just a few months ago, a Chinese man was demonstrating how a Unitree robot could mimic his kickboxing movements. But the robot got a little too close to the man, and when the man kicked his leg into the air, the robot kicked the man in a very sensitive area below his belt.
The video of this incident went viral online, causing men everywhere to grimace, many wondering what kind of idiot would teach a robot to kickbox. It’s only a matter of time, of course, before robots are trained for combat. Many countries are reluctant to send their soldiers to war, but if they had a platoon of humanoids, casualties would be minimised. If a robot were killed in combat, it would not leave behind a grieving widow. But we need to be careful what tasks we entrust to robots.
We might not mind a robot messaging our close family members, but would we want a robot massaging them? No, that would be too close for comfort. We might not mind a robot performing an operation for us, but would we want a robot performing an operation on us? No, a robot holding a scalpel would be scary. We might not mind a robot cutting our grass, but would we want a robot cutting our hair? No, a robot in a barbershop gives me the fear that I might leave with just one ear.
