For decades, Hollywood and science-fiction authors have been penning countless cautionary tales about the dangers of mankind playing the role of “god” and creating life. After all, what good could possibly come from a fallen race of beings attempting to replicate the work of an infallible, all-knowing, all-powerful entity? Rather than seeing these stories as warnings against the folly of creating artificial intelligence, it seems humans saw them as an instruction manual.
While A.I. is in its infancy, it seems the chickens might already be on their way home to roost, so to speak. A video clip from Russia captured a robot powered by A.I., launching into a wild kung-fu attack against a customer who apparently pushed the machine, launching fears across the internet that Terminator 2: Judgment Day might be moving out of the realm of fiction into reality.
The clip, which was captured at Volga Electronics in Saratov, kicks off — no pun intended — docile enough, with the bipedal robot coming up to a male customer who entered the shop. When the man extends his hand for a handshake, the robot snubs him, which then prompts the customer to give the bot a playful shove. And that’s when things took a turn for the apocalyptic.
According to a report from Yahoo News, the machine immediately takes a kung-fu stance like something ripped straight from the pages of a Jackie Chan film, and then launches into a martial arts blitz against the man who shoved it, punches and kicks whirling through the air. Two store employees attempt to intervene and restrain the robot as it continues to take swings at the customer.
It’s important to point out that there are theories floating around online that the whole thing was a staged exhibition, a publicity stunt similar to other previous videos showing robots on the attack, to help drum up business for the store. Regardless of authenticity, the footage got folks talking about the dangers of artificial intelligence.
“So we can’t even control a 4-foot robot, imagine later when there’s actual adult-size psycho robots?” said one individual on social media. “We human[s] are done.” Another person said, “The Machines are getting ready to take over. We were warned with the Terminator.” Someone else wrote, “These f–king bots are going to kill us for sure!!!”
Others, however, believed the entire encounter was staged, noting that machines do not just randomly take up martial arts stances unless they are programmed to do so. “Robots don’t spontaneously do martial arts poses unless they are programmed to do it,” the person said. However, there is a growing number of videos that have been verified authentic that show robots going crazy around their human counterparts.
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For example, this spring, a dance bot was performing in front of patrons at a restaurant in California, only to literally start tearing up the dance floor, knocking over tables, smashing plates, and tossing chopsticks around. A man in China was given a swift kick to the groin by an advanced Unitree robot that he was operating.
Featured Image: screenshot from embedded video