Workers had to stop a dancing humanoid robot after it ran amok at a California restaurant

When we think about the current threat of a new technology, we often think about the near future discussion between Anthropic and the Pentagon on how AI can be used in the military. It’s scary to think – how long will it take for a nuclear weapon to be detonated without human intervention?

We’ve been spending so much time thinking about potential disasters that we haven’t prepared for the disaster that’s looming in our midst: dancing robots.

A dancing robot at the Haidilao restaurant in Cupertino, California, lifted itself up, got too close to the table, and started smashing dishes and sending dish soap and chopsticks everywhere, prompting the restaurant’s staff to intervene, according to a statement. to the video written on the Chinese website Xiaohongshu by Meooow.

From what we can see movieat least three workers struggled to stop the robot as it waved its arms. A worker at Haidilao appears to be looking at his phone, perhaps trying to make some changes to the robot’s monitoring software. It’s possible a robot – that it looks like an AgiBot X2 robotwho was displayed at the CES conference in January – it has a kill switch, but the workers probably didn’t know how to use it.

If you are not familiar with the hot pot, you should know that, as the name suggests, it includes very hot pots of soup. No one likes to waste food, but if a robot dropped a bowl of bone broth, it wouldn’t just be a food disaster, it could burn someone. Not to mention any damage that can be done from the automaton here.

When The Killers sang “We are people or we are dancers“We didn’t realize they were asking us to participate in future robot wars.

Haidilao proved mechanical depression in a statement to NBC Newsbut denied that the robot had “disrupted or lost control.”

“On this occasion, the robot was approached by the dining table when requested by the guest, which is not the way it works,” the Chinese restaurant chain told NBC News in a statement. “A few places affected the movement during the game.”

AgiBot did not immediately respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment.

Haidilao tried “smart restaurant” in Beijing, which used robot servers and soup mixers. entertainment purposesbut things went wrong when it danced too close to the customers.

Many startups are working on bringing robots to the food industry, such as Shin Starr, which is engaged in the development of independent kitchens. Pudu Robotic’ BellaBotA cute, cat-like robot can guide customers to their seats and bring out their food when it’s finished.

It’s probably safer than humanoid robots, for now – BellaBot has no legs.