An AI-powered humanoid robot developed by Faraday Future was spotted mingling with people at Brooklyn Bridge Park in New York on Sunday. The life-sized robot walked around, sang to children, and danced with people. Chief Technology Officer Hong Rao said the machine was being used to learn how to nurture people.
The life-sized robot repotedly walked around the park, sang to children, danced with people and took in views of Manhattan.
An AI-powered humanoid robot developed by California-based Faraday Future was spotted mingling with people at Brooklyn Bridge Park in New York on Sunday, as its creators explored how the machine could learn to interact with humans and potentially serve as a babysitter, teacher or companion, the New York Post reported.
The life-sized robot walked around the park, sang to children, danced with people and took in views of Manhattan, according to video cited by the newspaper.
Chief Technology Officer Hong Rao, who was operating the $89,000 robot using a small remote control, told the news outlet that the machine was being used to learn how to "interact" and "nurture" people.
The demonstration offered a glimpse of how companies are exploring potential applications for humanoid robots beyond industrial settings, including roles that involve interacting directly with people.
In one scene, around a dozen women posed for a photograph with the robot, with the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges in the background.
The robot also interacted with children and danced with people, according to the news outlet.
While the demonstration appeared designed to familiarise the machine with human interaction, the report did not establish whether the robot was already capable of independently caring for children or performing teaching duties.
The report did not provide details about when the robot might be commercially deployed in these roles.
AI expert warns about the future of human-robot relationships
The demonstration came a month after a Nobel Prize-winning artificial intelligence expert Professor Geoffrey Hinton, a British-Canadian computer scientist, warned Congress that humanity could face an existential threat from increasingly "conscious" robots unless people learn how to coexist with them, the New York Post reported.
The warning reflects broader concerns about the pace of AI development and the possibility of increasingly capable machines taking on roles traditionally performed by humans.