Chinese EV company ‘forced’ to cut open realistic AI robot to ‘prove’ it isn’t human
An eerily lifelike robot marched across a stage this week, dressed in a body-hugging white outfit. Its creators were forced to slice it open.
A Chinese EV company has created a humanoid robot so eerily lifelike engineers were forced to cut it open to prove it was, in fact, a robot.
Technology company, Xpeng, unveiled its second-generation humanoid robot, IRON, at its AI Day in Guangzhou, China last week, rivalling Tesla’s Optimus robots.
Powered by a solid-state battery and three custom AI chips, IRON features a “humanoid spine, bionic muscles, and fully covered flexible skin, and supports customisation for different body shapes.”
The robot has the power to make 2,250 trillion operations per second (TOPS) and features 82 degrees of freedom, including 22 in each hand.
“Its movements are natural, smooth, and flexible, capable of achieving, catwalk walking and other high-difficulty human-like actions,” Xpeng said in a statement.
The impressively realistic design quickly led to scepticism online that the robot was a human in disguise.
“Is this a female in a robotic suit? one person questioned on X.
“That’s truly human!” another wrote.
Speaking at a presentation a day after the Xpeng’s AI Day, the company’s co-founder and chairman He Xiaopeng acknowledged the robot had created “unexpected buzz” online.
“Many people were saying there’s a real person hidden inside IRON,” he said onstage.
“Our robotics team felt quite wronged, they didn’t sleep all night and they didn’t let me sleep either.”
When the accusations continued, Mr He said his team debated how best to prove the robot was real and eventually came to a “rather forced last-resort solution” to cut the robot’s lower leg.
Debunking the theories then and there, he invited his engineers on stage with a large pair of scissors.
One crouched down at the robots feet and carefully cut the layer of synthetic skin and “calf muscle”, revealing a metal limb, as the crowd watched on.
“We believe we don’t need any more proof,” Mr He said as the robot walked on stage with its robotic limb visible.
The company shared the footage online, and while there were still a few doubters who speculated the robot was a “woman with a prosthetic leg”, many flocked to social media to praise Xpeng for its “incredible” lifelike invention.
“This is extremely impressive. The fact many don’t believe it is what makes it even more impressive,” one person wrote.
“Congrats! A small step for Xiaopeng, but a giant leap for mankind,” another wrote.
“Actions speak louder than words. Congratulations to XPENG on this milestone!” said another.
A customisable robot
The launch of Xpeng’s second-generation IRON comes a year after the company unveiled the first version of the humanoid robot.
“Compared with the first-generation IRON, the Next-Gen IRON has achieved comprehensive upgrades in bionic structure, intelligence system, and energy architecture, and has achieved ‘ultra-realistic anthropomorphism’ in both appearance and thinking interaction,” Xpeng said.
The Vice President of Xpeng’s Robotics Centre, Liangchuan “LC” Mi, addressed the company’s decision to design a robot that was female-presenting, telling reporters “there are different kinds of human”.
“This is more about inspiration,” said Mr Mi, according to mashable. “We see the different options because there are different kinds of humans. So we’re trying to see how people can react (to different form factor) … So we’ll see all kinds of feedback from people.”
Mr He said IRON can be customisable to reflect different body shapes.
“You can choose a little bit fatter IRON, or, like me, a slimmer IRON. Or you can customise your IRON based on your preferences. We also offer you the full coverage soft skin, so the robot is warmer and also more intimate,” he said during his keynote speech.
“I suspect that just like [when] you buy a car, you can choose different colours, exterior, interior. In the future, when you buy the robot, you can choose sex, and you can choose the hair, longer or not, or the clothes.”
During the speech, Mr He quoted the head of the Robots Centre, saying “We are not making robots. We are making humans”.
“In the future, robots will be (your) life partners and also maybe your colleagues. That’s why it’s more like (an) intelligent human, (and) has the intelligence to create a better life with human beings.”
Mr He said the robots will begin appearing in locations in 2026 but suggested they won’t be usable in households in the immediate future.
Instead, he said they will first be used commercially as sales assistants and tour guides and be used for traffic diversion.
It comes after billionaire Elon Musk said last month the company will likely launched the next generation of its humanoid robot, Optimus, in the first quarter of next year.
“We look forward to unveiling Optimus V3, you know, probably in Q1,” he said during the Q3 2025 Earnings Call.
Mr Musk first introduced the concept of Tesla’s humanoid robot, then known as the Tesla Bot, at the company’s AI Day in 2021.
Mr Musk said at Tesla’s “We, Robot”, event last year that Optimus could “do anything you want” including babysitting, serving drinks, act a as a teacher and even “be your friend”.
Futurist Peter Diamandis, founder of XPRIZE, last year released the Humanoid Robotics Metatrend Report, forecasting the global robot sector is set for “explosive” investment.
Mr Diamandis believes aged care, manufacturing, and hazardous manual labour roles are some of the first that will be disrupted. There’s also huge potential for robots to take on work in logistics and agriculture, “revolutionising” those labour-reliant industries.
He said operating costs would be cut “dramatically” as a result, seeing a “reshaping of global wealth”.
Originally published as Chinese EV company ‘forced’ to cut open realistic AI robot to ‘prove’ it isn’t human
