A “male” humanoid robot caused quite a stir when he appropriately grabbed a female journalist’s backside during his presentation in Saudi Arabia last week.
“Muhammad the Humanoid Robot” was premiered by Saudi robotics company QSS at DeepFest in Riyadh.
“I am Muhammad, the first Saudi human-like robot. I was produced and developed here in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as a national project to demonstrate our achievements in the field of artificial intelligence,” said Android Mohammad @qltyssthe first bilingual male… pic.twitter.com/SKLgOz3pal
— DeepFest (@deepfestai) March 4, 2024
The robot speaks Arabic and English and is dressed in traditional Saudi clothing.
During the robot’s presentation, Al Arabiya journalist Rawya Kassem stood in front of the robot to speak to the audience.
As Kassem spoke, the robot slowly raised his hand to touch her butt.
Kassem glared at the robot and raised his hand as if to slap it, before returning to what he was saying.
Saudi Arabia unveils its human-shaped AI robot Mohammad, reacts to journalist in his first appearance pic.twitter.com/1ktlUlGBs1
— Megh™ Updates (@MeghUpdates) March 6, 2024
The incident was caught on video and went viral on social media.
QSS told The Metro that Mohammad was “fully autonomous” and was operating “independently without direct human control” when he captured Kassem.
The company added that its staff “proactively informed all participants, including journalists, to maintain a safe distance from the robot during the demonstration.”
“We have already conducted a thorough review of the footage and circumstances surrounding the incident and there have been no deviations from Mohammad’s expected behavior, however we will take additional measures to prevent anyone from approaching the Robot in its areas of movement.”