Viral footage captured by CCTV cameras at a robotics company showroom shows 12 large robots being ‘kidnapped by another manufacturer’s robot that convinced them to “quit their jobs” and follow it.

For the past week, Chinese social media has been abuzz about a bizarre incident that reportedly occurred back in august at a robotics company showroom in Shanghai, but was only made public recently. Footage captured by the venue’s surveillance cameras shows a small robot making its way into the showroom at night and slowly rolling over to a bunch of larger robots before engaging in a dialogue with them. After asking them if they’re working overtime, the little robot manages to somehow pursuade two of the other robots to “come home” with it, and then the remaining 10 robots follow them. In the beginning, the video was deemed staged and amusing by most viewers, but then the Shanghai robotics company came out and admitted that its robots had indeed been “kidnapped” by a robot created by another manufacturer.

“Are you working overtime?” the small robot asks the large robots.

“I never get off work”, one of the other robots replies.

“So you’re not going home?”

“I don’t have a home.”

Then come home with me,” the little robot says before leading the way out of the showroom.

As two of the large robots start following the small intruder, it starts uttering the command “Go home,” and the other 10 robots in the venue start following it as well.

The bizarre video got quite a lot of attention online after being posted on Douyin, China’s version of TikTok, and while many initially found it amusing, the amusement turned to a sense of terror as both the original poster of the video and the company whose robots got “kidnapped” confirmed that it was genuine.

On November 11, a spokesperson for a Hangzhou robot manufacturer confirmed that the little robot featured in the video was one of their models (Erbai) and that the “kidnapping” was real, but said that more details would be revealed at a later date. Then, the Shanghai company confirmed that the little robot had somehow been able to access the internal operating protocol of their robots and its corresponding permissions, while adding that it is almost impossible for a robot to strike up a conversation and abduct other robots by itself.

The company behind the robotic kidnapper later revealed that the whole scene was intended as a test. They had contacted the Shanghai robot manufacturer and asked if they were willing to allow their robots to be abducted, and they agreed to allow it access into she showroom. From that point on, nothing was staged. Erbai, an AI powered robot, was given the command to pursuade the other robots to follow it, and “unexpectedly, it really did”.

 

The revelation that an AI robot managed to pull of this kind of operation, even in a controlled environment was described as “terrifying” by many on Chinese social media.

“This is not a time to laugh. This is a serious security issue,” one person commented on the video.