“Fully autonomous”: a robot touches a journalist’s buttocks live

A human-looking robot, developed to be “fully autonomous”, raised eyebrows last week when it placed its hand on a journalist's buttocks live on air, during an international event on artificial intelligence.

Last Friday, robotics company QSS, originally from the robot, told the British newspaper Metro: “We have already conducted a comprehensive review of the images and circumstances surrounding the incident and there was no deviation from the expected behavior of Muhammad.”

Last week, images of the lifelike robot were viewed more than 28.1 million times, after the “fully autonomous” robot, equipped with artificial intelligence, appeared to approach a woman’s buttocks with its hand. A live journalist, during the DeepFest event held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, according to the British agency.

In the video circulating on social media, we see journalist Rawya Qasim heading towards the robot by raising her hand, as if asking it to stop, after the robot touched her for a short period.

While many netizens were quick to accuse the robot of being “coded to be deviant,” the company behind the device said it was designed to improve human safety and assist in dangerous conditions, the New York Post reported.

According to some, he could have simply been trying to ask the journalist to come forward, at the moment his knuckled hand collided with the woman.

“However, we will take additional measures to prevent anyone from approaching the robot in its movement areas,” he said in statements to British media.