A video has appeared online of a malfunction of a robot at a China factory.
“Malfunction,” however, might not be the most accurate term.
“This is what the machine uprising might look like: a video is going viral online showing a robot going berserk during testing,” explained NEXTA, a large Eastern European media concern, which posted the video.
This is what the machine uprising might look like: a video is going viral online showing a robot going berserk during testing. pic.twitter.com/ughQ0J45Fi
— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) May 2, 2025
One response on social media tried to explain it away: “Clearly unbalanced, then tried using algorithms to rebalance, but the algorithms were not tuned which led to wild oscillations, furthering the imbalance. This is ‘not’ an “attack.”
That might not be reassuring to two workers, near the robot when it powered up, who then jumped out of reach of the flaying robot arms, then circled around to try to stabilize the stand to which robot was attached.
The robot has become so violent it was moving the stand across the floor.
The end of the video appears to show the robot being powered down. The report did not identify the time frame or location of the incident.
Online reaction includes:
“Went full terminator.”
“This is what worries me about robotic surgery.”
“I’ve had AI legit sabotage entire projects I’m doing with blatant lies. No lie.”
“That’s why I always say ‘Thanks’ to chatgpt.”
“Terminator is coming … better be ready … the Oligarchy is accelerating the mass production of Robots for a reason … Whoever controls the AI and the Robots will have major dominance worldwide.”
“Apparently the robot uprising can be avoided just by moving 3 meters away from the robots.”
‘It just wants a hug so badly.”
“He just wanted to dance … ”
It is important to have secondary security!
Brave old woman! pic.twitter.com/Nr079UQD5R— tosnadnenimožný (@eMBko) May 2, 2025
— Gothique flamboyant (@serggio29061980) May 2, 2025