Thousands of workers quit their jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic, and now social media users are claiming that robots want to quit their jobs too.
A Facebook reel from May 6 shows a robot moving a box and then suddenly collapsing. “The AI (artificial intelligence) experienced 15 minutes of wage slavery and immediately committed suicide after deciding it was the logical choice,” the video reads. “AI knows that repetitive work without passion drains your life force.”
The post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on news feeds. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)
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Screenshot from Instagram)
A video of the robot went viral on TikTok. One video caption said the robot stopped working and committed suicide “after the algorithm decided it didn’t want to do the same manual labor over and over again.”
These social media posts took the moment out of context and exaggerated the circumstances that led to the robot’s collapse.
In this video, Digit, a prototype bipedal robot built by Agility Robotics, demonstrated its ability to pick up and move boxes in a warehouse at the ProMat supply chain trade show in Chicago in March. The post said that after just 15 minutes of work, the robot gave up and stopped automatically. But it didn’t happen.
Agility Robotics said Digit ran about 20 hours of live demonstrations during the four-day trade show. Although the robot had a 99% success rate, “Digit still fell a few times on the Promat,” the company said on social media on April 6.
“In some ways,[these waterfalls]provide more useful data than a full cycle without issues,” Agility Robotics said on LinkedIn.
Liz Clinkenbeard, vice president of communications at Agility Robotics, said a software bug or minor sensor error likely caused the fall. In some cases, the robot may need to be repaired, but it usually takes 15 to 20 minutes.
The robot has some artificial intelligence capabilities, including machine learning, but Agility Robotics said it didn’t consciously decide to stop working.
“We want to be careful not to overhumanize or give intent to machines,” said Clinkenbeard. “Digits look like humans, but they are actually computers that can do physical work and follow programs.”
There were also posts on social media claiming the robot had taken its own life.
“While I expected it to contain some jokes and misinformation, I don’t think it’s ever appropriate to joke about suicide, as is the case with failure videos,” Clinkenbeard said. I want to emphasize,” he said.
We rate the claim that the robot “self-terminated” after 15 minutes of manual labor as “false”.
