Terrifying video of humanoid robot 'waking up' and attacking its handler goes viral

BEIJING, CHINA: A humanoid robot was caught on CCTV camera "coming to life" and attacking a person in front of it, who is assumed to be its handler, in a factory in China, the Daily Mail reported on Monday, May 5.

The clip has since gone viral across social media platforms, with netizens wondering if this is indeed the beginning of the robot uprising of science fiction.

Video shows humanoid robot 'coming to life' and attacking handler

In the viral video, two men are seen working on a computer beside a motionless humanoid robot hanging from a miniature crane. In a span of seconds, the robot becomes mobile and proceeds to swing and chop at the person in front of it.

The two men duck and shoot out of its reach as the robot becomes increasingly violent, and seemingly thrashes around to become free from the restraints. Some of the items in front, including the computer, were smashed in the process.

Eventually, one of the men pulled the crane from behind to prevent the situation from escalating.

As per the Daily Mail, the incident took place on May 1, just weeks after the world's most advanced humanoid robot, Ameca the bot, shared its opinion on whether robots will be taking away jobs from humans at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

Created by the British firm Engineered Arts, Ameca responded to the question with, "I don't know, how good are you at your job? It depends on how good you are at it, I suppose."

For the follow-up question, "Are robots going to take over the world?" it replied, "That's an interesting question, but not interesting for me to answer."

Internet reacts to viral clip of humanoid robot attacking its handler

Netizens reacting to the clip of the robot coming to life on the social media platform X jokingly shared their concern. The following tweets demonstrate the takes.

"Sci-fi is starting to feel like a documentary," wrote a person.

"Looks like a scene right out of Walmart," quipped another.

"That's exactly what I do when someone tries to wake me up," shared a third.

"How will you explain this to your insurance company lol," stated a fourth.

"Looks like the beginning scenes of a dystopian movie where robots take over," observed a fifth.

This article contains remarks made on the Internet by individual people and organizations. MEAWW cannot confirm them independently and does not support claims or opinions being made online.