No, this robot didn’t collapse from exhaustion after ‘a long day’s work’

Issued on: 09/05/2023 – 13:43

If you only have a minute

• Since April 13, some Twitter accounts have been sharing a video that shows a robot collapsing after performing its duties. According to these accounts, the robot collapsed from exhaustion or even “killed itself” due to the difficult work.
• The video comes from a tweet from Agility Robots, an American company that produces the machine. The clip was taken in Chicago during a logistics show to demonstrate the robot’s “99% success rate” over 20 hours of work.
• The company told the FRANCE 24 Observers team that incidents like these are normal for new technologies and warned against “ascribing intent” to robots. 

The fact-check, in detail

A robot repeatedly moves boxes from a shelf to a conveyor belt, then collapses while dozens of people look on. The video has been viewed nearly five million times on Twitter since April 13. 

Some accounts have shared the video with jokes: “Even robots don’t want this horrible life,” wrote this Twitter user. 

But other captions insinuate that even robots might be able to make conscious choices, like quitting their jobs because the work is too hard. This caption suggests that the robot collapsed from “tiredness” after a “long day’s work”. 

Another, shared 50,000 times, says, “The AI experienced 15 minutes of wage slavery then immediately killed itself after determining it as the logical choice.”

The video was also picked up and shared in other languages, like French.

A demonstration at a trade show

But what is this robot, and why did it suddenly collapse?

We used the InVid WeVerify tool (click here to find out how), we found the same video, published on April 7 by the Twitter account Agility Robotics, an American robotics company. 

The robot’s name is “Digit”, and on the Agility Robotics website, it’s described as “the first human-centric, multi-purpose robot made for logistics work”, particularly to “do useful work safely in spaces designed for people, starting with bulk material handling within warehouses and distribution centers”.

ProMat, which they mention in the tweet, is a Chicago trade show for the manufacturing and supply chain industry held in March 2023. That’s where Agility Robotics introduced Digit.

‘A normal part of any new technology’

The FRANCE 24 Observers team spoke to Liz Clinkenbeard, vice president of communication for Agility Robotics. She told us why the company chose to share this video.

Coming on the heels of a very successful public demonstration of Digit, we wanted to show that Digit did fall a couple of times, that it’s a normal part of any new technology, and it’s not a big deal.

She specified that the fall came in the middle of the second day of the show and that the robot continued working successfully for two full days afterward. 

As for what caused the fall, Clinkenbeard blamed it on a “software bug or minor sensor error”, which is “rarely something that takes more than 15-20 minutes” to repair. 

‘We do want to be careful about not over-humanizing a machine’

Clinkenbeard also responded to allegations that the robot was making decisions on its own:

We do want to be careful about not over-humanizing a machine or ascribing intent. While Digit looks something like a person, in reality it is a computer that can do physical work, and it’s following a program. It certainly does not have human intent.

Although the company’s robots can use artificial intelligence, particularly through “machine learning”, this robot did not decide on its own to stop working.

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