When we think of the existential threats posed by new technologies, we usually think of things like the recent negotiations between Anthropic and the Department of Defense over how AI can be used in the military. It’s frightening to think – how long will it take for nuclear weapons to be detonated without human intervention?
We have spent so much time thinking about these potential catastrophes that we have been unprepared for the more immediate danger that lies within us: dancing robots.
According to a video posted by user Meooow on the Chinese social network Xiaohongshu, a dancing robot at hot pot restaurant Haidilao in Cupertino, California, booed a little too hard and got too close to the table, breaking plates and sending utensils and chopsticks flying everywhere, prompting restaurant staff to intervene.
At least three employees struggled to stop the robot as it flailed its arms, the video showed. One of Haidilao’s employees appears to be looking at his phone, perhaps trying to switch something on the app that controls the robot. The robot, believed to be the AgiBot X2 robot introduced at the CES conference in January, may have a kill switch, but staff may not have known how to operate it.
Even those unfamiliar with hot pot should know that, as the name suggests, it involves a pot of very hot soup. No one likes spilling food, but if a robot were to knock over a bowl of bone broth, it wouldn’t just be a cooking disaster, it could seriously burn someone. Not to mention the possibility of blunt force damage from moshing automatons.
When The Killers sang “Are We Men Or Dancers,” we didn’t know they were asking us to take a stand in a future robot war.
In a statement to NBC News, Haidilao acknowledged the mechanical culprit, but denied that the robot “malfunctioned or was out of control.”
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“In this case, the robot was brought closer to the dining table at the customer’s request, which is not a normal operating environment,” the Chinese hot pot restaurant chain told NBC News in a statement. “The limited space affected movement during the performance.”
AgiBot did not immediately respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment.
Haidilao experimented with a “smart restaurant” in Beijing using robot servers and soup mixers. The Haidilao restaurant was apparently using the robot just for entertainment purposes, but things got out of control when the robot danced too close to the customers.
A number of startups are working on bringing robots to the food service industry, like Shin Starr, which is working to develop fully autonomous kitchens. Pudu Robotics’ BellaBot is a cute cat-like robot that can escort guests to their seats and bring them their finished food.
Perhaps, at least for now, BellaBot is safer than humanoid robots since it has no limbs.
