‘Very beautiful’: A new robot dances for Putin days after embarrassing faceplant

An AI-powered robot danced for President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday at an exhibition put on by Sberbank, Russia’s largest bank, designed to showcase the company’s technological advances.

The performance, which was shown on state TV, showed the Kremlin chief standing opposite the humanoid robot as it explained to him what it was before dancing to what it said was its favourite track.

Putin called the robot’s performance “very beautiful” and thanked it before continuing his tour.Credit: AP

“My name is Green. I am the first Russian humanoid robot with embedded artificial intelligence. This means that I am not just a program on a screen, but a physical embodiment of technology,” the robot told Putin.

Sberbank says the robot’s software will be constantly upgraded, that it has the potential to perform physical tasks, and that a pilot project will see it integrated into parts of its business.

The unusual event was watched closely by Putin’s bodyguards, one of whom stood between the robot and the Russian leader afterwards to make sure it moved away from him and did not get too close.

Putin called the robot’s performance “very beautiful” and thanked it before continuing his tour.

Putin also inspected one of Sberbank’s new generation smart cash machines which with the help of a camera can give customers a summary of their health based on 10 indicators such as pulse and blood pressure.

Putin said at that event that he’d been through one of his regular health checkups recently and that everything was fine with him.

The performance comes days after the Moscow presentation of another Russian robot purported to harness AI – called Aidol – went wrong after the robot fell flat on its face shortly after appearing on stage.

Organisers quickly dragged the machine away, raising a black drape to shield it from about 50 journalists who had gathered to watch the demonstration, an inauspicious entry for Russia into the increasingly competitive international space of AI-powered robots resembling humans.

“At first, there was a moment of silence,” Dmitry Filonov, editor-in-chief of Edinorog Media, who was in the audience and covers technology startups, said in a text message. “Then they began to applaud to show their support.”

Vladimir Vitukhin, AIDOL’s chief executive, told Russian state news agency Tass that the robot was still in the stages of learning.

“I hope this mistake will turn into an experience,” he said.

Vitukhin said the robot had been tested in a variety of conditions before the debut - “on stones, carpet, laminate, expanded clay and slippery floors,” according to the Moscow Times.

He said he believed Tuesday’s fall was probably the result of a voltage fluctuation and other environmental factors, including the lighting, but added: “Surely everyone felt sorry for it, and that’s one of its functions - to evoke sympathy,” the newspaper added.

Reuters, Bloomberg

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