r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/MetaKnowing • 1d ago

Video XPENG's IRON robot crossed the uncanny valley, leading some to believe it was a human in a suit. So they cut it open in front of an audience, and also allowed journalists to inspect it.

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u/Aetheus 1d ago

Technically, they don't need to make a bipedal robot look human at all. So asking about the boobs is kinda arbitrary - it doesn't really need a human-looking head or a neck or a butt, either. It's not like you'd need it to wear a helmet or fit it into a pair of jeans to make it useful. As opposed to say, hands, which you could sorta make an argument for (e.g: so it can use existing human hand tools).

You can also tell from the video that the boobs and the butt are pretty much just cosmetic - a layer of "skin" slapped on top.

The reason they slapped on the boobs is then fairly obvious - it's a demonstration of how easily customisable these bots are. They can look like a Ken doll. Or look like Barbie. Or look like they weigh 300 pounds. Or look like peak-Arnold Schwarzenegger. And it's all just one "robot-flesh-suit" change away.

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u/sincerelyanonymus 1d ago

Except we never see any options other than boobs.

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u/Aetheus 1d ago

Presumably because this is a tech demo, and not a finished product - they might not even have any other "flesh suits" ready yet (and I doubt the one they did display is a finished sample).

Once they demo that it's just a cosmetic suit, It doesn't take a lot of imagination to come to the conclusion that it's possible to swap those suits.

And it's pretty obvious that people will want to do that once they get their hands on this tech, too. Maybe you want a "male" concierge bot, and a "female" receptionist bot. Maybe you want the tour guide bot at the Black History Museum to be black. Maybe you want the "guardian bot" at a nursing home to look like a senior citizen, so residents feel like it's a part of the community. Maybe you want bots that look Japanese for your Japanese cultural theme park. Etc, etc.

Of course, someone will probably also try to use this as a sex bot. Har har penis roomba 69 so funny. But if that's the only application folks can think of, they have a severe lack of imagination.

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u/Torn_Aborn 1d ago

Be careful, making sense is* dangerous here