Robot abuse: Is it a thing?

This campaign demonstrating the Unitree G1 humanoid robot's new skills certainly raises some uncomfortable questions. The Chinese company's product has clearly come on in leaps and bounds in terms of anti-gravity stability and recovery from fall time. How do we feel about this whole thing? Some are apologising - not entirely jokingly - to the robots of the future about misuse / abuse / attack by humans. Others point out in a practical spirit that humanoid robots need to be able to perform any manoeuvre a human can as part of their functionality development. Some of us will be shaking our heads in a wonder yet to be defined, others questioning the environmental and ethical implications of this galloping tech dexterity. This ad ends with an explanation that this kind of extreme testing is not to be imitated, and a polite request that users "refrain from making any dangerous modifications or using the robot in a hazardous manner". Unitree describes itself as a civilian robotics company with excellent leadership in core robot parts, motion control, robot sensing and other comprehensive fields. Its mission? "To plant the science and technology tree of the world".

Keywords: Unitree G1 anti-gravity testing, robotics ethics, humanoid robots 2025