‘Why does it walk like Biden?’: Russia’s new AI robot collapses at unveiling

The robot, called AIDOL, was introduced on Tuesday, walking out to the theme song from Rocky as two handlers guided it to the stage. Developers pitched it as “Russia’s first anthropomorphic robot with artificial intelligence.” The machine walked a bit, tried to lift an arm to say hello, and then flopped.

Staff rushed in to drag the robot offstage while others scrambled to stretch a black curtain across the area to hide the malfunction. The curtain tangled while the robot lay motionless on the floor.

On TikTok, the top comment was: “Why did Russia make a Joe Biden robot?” Another user added, “Russia’s new humanoid robot walks just like their economy: a few shaky steps… then straight down.” Another comparison said that the engineers “accidentally loaded the Mitch McConnell profile.”

Users compared AIDOL to outdated tech and joked that it was due to sanctions. “Damn those sanctions hit Russia hard — we had robots like that 25 years ago.” Another posted a comment saying that American company Boston Dynamics had a long time before it would have to worry about any competition.

AIDOL is built by a startup that shares its name, registered last year, says CNN. According to the company’s CEO, Vladimir Vitukhin, the robot is supposed to handle three key tasks: movement, manipulating objects, and communicating with humans.

The robot stands 6'1", weighs 209 pounds, can apparently express a dozen basic emotions, carry up to 22 pounds, and move at roughly 3.7 mph. Developers say it is “73 percent localized,” meaning it’s built mostly from Russian-made components.

Those specs didn’t matter. “They walked it out there knowing damn well it was going to fall,” one commenter joked. Another asked, “Can anyone explain the actual need for any of this AI robot stuff?”