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Russia’s High-Tech AI Robot Turns Out To Be Human In Robot Costume

Russia’s High-Tech AI Robot Turns Out To Be Human In Robot Costume

Eagle-eyed viewers spotted a number of weird problems with the dancing robot.

Claire Reid

Claire Reid

Earlier this month Russia shared footage of a super-high-tech AI, named Boris, that appeared alongside a couple of humans on stage, proving itself able to talk and walk about.

Footage of Boris taken during a youth forum about robotics was shared by the country's state television channel Russia-24 and quickly went viral as robo-fans were blown away by its impressive movements and intelligence.

Other people, however, thought it was a little too slick and just a bit too human-like. And it's since transpired people were right to be suspicious, because it turns out it was a man in a robot suit all along. Awkward.


Boris was, in fact, some fella inside an Alyosha the Robot costume, which was created by a company called Show Robots at the cost of around £3,000 ($3,800). In fairness, the costume was pretty high-tech itself featuring a microphone and a display panel on its chest, which could hold a tablet.

Now before you go in on the company hosting the event, Proyektoria Technology, for trying to dupe kids and give us all false hope that the inevitable robot takeover is due even sooner than we thought, it's important to point out that it never claimed Boris was a legit robot.

However, the footage aired on Russia-24 did appear to suggest that it was, calling it 'the country's most modern robot' - adding that he had 'learned to dance and he's not that bad'.

During the footage, an anchor said: "It's entirely possible one of these [students] could dedicate himself to robotics.

"Especially as at the forum they have the opportunity to look at the most modern robots."

Naughty.

Russian website TJournal initially raised some concerns in an article, in which it questioned why the robot had no sensors, why there was no pre-published information about the super-bot, why did it appear to be the perfect size to fit a man in, and why did it make so many 'unnecessary movements'?

Finally, the biggie, what the fuck is going on with this gap that seemingly has a human neck inside?

After the truth was exposed, Russia-24 appeared to remove footage of Boris from its YouTube channel, but just a few hours later it was back. The channel is yet to issue an apology or explanation for its broadcast.

Featured Image Credit: Russia 24/MBKh Media

Topics: Viral, World News, Technology, Weird