Page 5 - IAV Digital Magazine #591

AI Robot Sparks Outrage After ‘Groping’ Reporter During Live Interview
iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxjBs9T3Y0o
By William McGee and Kathe rine Fidler
There are already fears of artificial intelligence
(AI) taking our jobs, or even end- ing humanity all together. Now a robot has been filmed apparently groping a woman in Saudi Arabia.
The seven-second clip was taken at DeepFest in Riyadh – an event billed as the ‘pre- mier meeting place for the glob- al artificial intelli- gence ecosystem’.
During the show- case, reporter
Rawya Kassem was seen speak- ing in front of the AI robot, called Mohammad, when it appeared to reach out and attempt to touch her inappropriate- ly.
Ms Kassem imme- diately flinched, and turned around with her hand raised, appearing to admonish him while continuing her job.
Mohammad, developed by Saudi AI and robotics firm QSS, is described as the ‘latest marvel in robotics’. Dressed in a tradi- tional outfit,
including a red keffiyeh, Mohammad intro- duced himself to the crowd in Arabic.
However, after the inappropriate interaction, the clip quickly went viral for all the wrong reasons, with some ques- tioning the coding, and one X user branding the robot a ‘pervert’.
QSS confirmed to Metro.co.uk that Mohammad is ‘fully autonomous’, and was operating ‘independently without direct human control’.
iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine