Chinese boss strips robot to prove it's not human

Xpeng, a Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer, has attracted attention on social media after demonstrating a new humanoid robot with lifelike movements, leading many to suspect that the company used actors in costumes. In response to the wave of comments, founder He Xiaopeng personally “skinned” the robot to prove that it was a real robot.

In the viral video , He lets the robot, named Iron, walk a few steps, then a colleague unlocks the artificial skin on its back to reveal its skeleton, cables, and internal components. Standing next to the robot, He said he could clearly hear the sound of its cooling system and fans, confirming that it was a machine.

According to a Weibo post on November 6, He said Xpeng’s robotics team was “so excited they couldn’t sleep” on the night of November 5. After months of preparation, the engineering team stayed up late to monitor reactions, respond to comments and take advantage of the unexpected media storm.

Robot moves 'smooth like a human' causing controversy Xpeng's Iron robot demonstration caused so much controversy that founder He Xiaopeng had to unlock it and show off its internal components to prove there was no human operator inside.

The social media hype also affected the stock market. Xpeng shares fell 2% after the robot's launch, but recovered 1.4% the next day after a "skinning" video was released to verify the product.

The new Iron is an upgrade of the Xpeng robot introduced last year, running on the Vision-Language-Action (VLA) 2.0 AI model, which relies heavily on image data for training and decision-making. Thanks to that, the robot can directly analyze its surroundings without the need to translate images into language, increasing efficiency and reducing information loss.

Xpeng describes Iron as being equipped with a “human-like spine,” bionic muscles, and fully flexible skin. The robot has 82 degrees of freedom of movement, allowing it to dance, catwalk, and perform complex actions. The hands use what Xpeng claims are the smallest harmonic joints in the field of AI robotics, allowing for life-sized hands with flexible fingers.

In preparation for mass production starting next year, Xpeng has secured its first customer, Baoshan Iron and Steel (Baosteel), China’s largest steelmaker. In a video message on November 5, Baosteel Chairman Zou Jinxin said the robots will be used in “dangerous industrial areas such as material inspection.”

Source: https://znews.vn/robot-chuyen-dong-muot-nhu-nguoi-gay-tranh-cai-post1601050.html