It’s warm bot-tied.
Techsperts are sounding alarm bells following the release of an eerily realistic humanoid service bot named Moya with camera eyes and, most creepily, warm skin. Dystopian footage shows the lifelike automaton interacting with guests during its debut at the Zhangjiang Robotics Valley in Shanghai.
Created by Shanghai start-up DroidUP, Moya is billed as the “world’s first highly bionic robot” that combines “human aesthetics and advanced humanoid sports,” per a translated press release.
To complete this effect, the bot comes with cameras positioned behind the eyes that allow for “rich expressions such as joy, anger, sorrow and happiness,” per a translated video by Chinese state-run rag Shanghai Media Group, Futurism reported.
“Once she recognizes me, she can look at me and interact with me, which makes her feel much more ‘human,’” the reporter declares in the clip. As if on cue, the robot shifts its eyes to meet her gaze.
Unlike other cold automatons, Moya boasts warm skin — her body temperature clocks in at between 90°F and 97°F, approximately the same as a human, Fox News reports.
It might seem strange to give the humanoid a “hot body,” given that DroidUP envisions her providing info in train stations, banks, museums and shopping malls — although daily companionship could be in her future, per the firm.
However, startup founder Li Qingdu told SMB, “A robot that truly serves human life should be warm, have a temperature, almost like a living being that people can connect with.”
And that’s not where Moya’s anthropomorphic traits allegedly end. The machine allegedly boasts 92 percent human-like walking accuracy thanks to being outfitted with the Walker 3 robot platform — a set of cameras and LIDAR sensors that allow her to choose her own routes and avoid obstacles in real time.
This system is more compact and lighter than its predecessor, the Walker 2, which finished third during a half marathon last year.
However, judging by her clunky and stiff gait in the video demonstration, we’d gather that Moya still has ways to go before she can walk like a human.
The humanoid is slated to launch in 2026 for the cost of a cool $176,000.
Nonetheless, her unveiling has raised some concerns among techpserts with many finding that her “warm” character conversely quite chilling.
“Warmth removes one of the few clear signals that separates machines from humans,” warned award-winning tech journalist Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson in a recent piece for Fox. “Once that line blurs, discomfort grows fast.”
He added that the bots do not need “warm skin to be helpful” or “faces to point someone in the right direction.”
More frighteningly, he argued that the goal seems to be creating automatons that “blend in socially, raising ongoing concerns about consent, surveillance and emotional manipulation.”
“Even if the robot is polite and helpful, the presence alone changes how people behave,” he warned. “Creepy reactions are not irrational. They are early warning signs.”
Indeed, this wouldn’t be the first hyperrealistic humanoid bot to make people’s hairs stand on end.
Last February, a creepy lifelike automaton — purported to be the “world’s first bipedal, musculoskeletal android” — sprang to life during a moment viewers deemed “dystopian” and “terrifying.”
“Why is the human race hellbent on self-destruction?” spluttered one.
Another wrote, “While every normal person looks at dystopian sci-fi films as cautionary tales, nerds see them as instruction manuals.”
