Video shows ‘eerily human’ robot getting ‘aggressive’ with Chinese festival-goer, but not everyone is convinced

Joe Rogan has claimed a humanoid robot took an “aggressive” lunge at a person in China. But keen-eyed commenters say he’s overblown the footage.

Joe Rogan has set off his fanbase once again after a video surfaced appearing to show a robot “getting aggressive” with a human at a festival in China.

The viral clip, shared by X user Ben Geskin, sparked a wave of speculation online, with the world’s most popular podcast host suggesting it was the latest a glimpse into our dystopian near-future.

“An AI robot attacked a human at a mass event in China; is this the beginning?” @BenGeskin wrote in his post. Rogan reposted the footage on his Instagram and set off the snowball.

“An AI robot got aggressive with spectators in China. The way it did it was eerily human. I don’t like this at all,” Rogan wrote.

The clip in question is startling at first glance, with the robot clearly lunging towards a person behind a barricade. The event’s security quickly grabbed the bipedal contraption and the situation looked a little tense for a fleeting moment.

He walks up for a look.

Then lunges forward in an apparent ‘attack’.

That’s enough for tonight, mate.

The problem is, the camera angle obscured the robot’s legs and from there the debate raged.

Those who want to believe we are hurtling towards a sci-fi future where robots roam the planet exterminating every human in sight had a field day, claiming the clip was irrefutable evidence that humanoid robots had achieved consciousness and were already annoyed at humans enough to attack one.

But others were a bit less dramatic and said the robot clearly tripped forward and gave the illusion it was shaping up for a drunken hook.

Commenters pointed out that the robot appeared to “trip and fall against the barricade,” with one claiming “it’s clear as day that it tripped FFS”.

While the incident may not be the Matrix-style uprising Rogan fears, it does highlight a genuine issue in robotics. Boston Dynamics, one of the companies at the forefront of humanoid robot development, has been uploading videos for years showcasing their dexterity, with some able to perform backflips and complete manual labour tasks with relative ease.

But there’s still a long way to go in developing how AI handles unexpected situations.

Joe Rogan has set off his fanbase once again after a video surfaced appearing to show a robot “attacking” a human at a festival in China. Picture: YouTube

Robots are typically designed for stability, but when they do fall, their attempts to regain balance can appear erratic or even aggressive.

Rogan has long voiced his concern over the rapid expansion of advanced AI. A famous episode with Elon Musk in 2018 saw the world’s richest man declare we were already past the tipping point of AI capabilities, claiming he “tried to warn them” and had now adopted an “if you can’t beat it, join it” approach.

Global concern over AI

Numerous figures in the AI field have also sounded alarm on the global race towards technological supremacy, loosely comparing it to the frantic efforts in the 1940s to produce the world’s first nuclear bomb.

Geoffrey Hinton, known as the “godfather of AI” famously quit Google in 2023 over concerns the company was not adequately assessing the risks, warning we could be walking into a “nightmare”.

While the immediate benefits are already being seen in terms of productivity, the main concern is that we are charging full steam ahead towards an event horizon that is impossible to predict the outcome of.

What we do know is that those spearheading AI development are becoming absurdly wealthy incredibly quickly and thus hold more and more power over the trajectory of the planet as each day passes.

In September 2024, around 40 experts spanning technology, law, and data protection were gathered by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to tackle the existential issue head-on.

They say that AI’s global, border-crossing nature makes governance a mess, and we’re missing the tools needed to address the chaos.

The panel’s report drops a sobering reminder, warning that if we wait until AI presents an undeniable threat, it could already be too late to mount a proper defence.

“There is, today, a global governance deficit with respect to AI,” the panel of experts warned in their report, stressing that the technology needs to “serve humanity equitably and safely”.