A couple of Thursdays ago, I woke up at almost 4:30 am to Instagram DM.
RizzBot, a popular humanoid robot with more than 1 million ticks and more than Half a million followers On Instagram, have posted a photo: they have removed me.
There are no words. There is no explanation. Only robots with raised middle fingers.
Although I was shocked, the sinking feeling meant I could guess why. A few weeks ago, RizzBot – or the person who opened the account – and I had a conversation about a possible story. I found an interesting account: A humanoid walking the streets of Austin wearing Nike Dunks and a cowboy hat. Known for baking, but also flirting and having a good time. The name Rizz comes from the Gen Z Slang Word rizz for charisma.
I am very interested in the rising popularity of the account. People are usually uncomfortable with humanoids. There are privacy concerns and fear of job displacement. Online, people sling with him, at least calling him “Clanker.” In the world of robotics, meanwhile, experts are correcting what will be appropriate to do.
I see rizzbot as a role model that makes people feel connected to humanoids.
RizzBot agreed to an interview, so I started reaching out to experts to discuss the future of humanoids while preparing the story. Two weeks after the start of the dm with rizzbot, I said that I would finally post some interviews on Monday or Tuesday.
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But life happens, and I missed my own deadline. I finally got ready to post my first question on Thursday, and I thought, no big deal.
Miss. In the wee hours of the night, RizzBot posted the photo. The message is clear: you broke your word, so it’s easy.
I didn’t give up. I apologize to the robot (or to the human?) for the delay and promise to send the first question during office hours. But when I tried a few hours later, I was met with “user not found.”
The robot blocked me.
Am I triggering a safe failover?
Friends think it’s not funny and blocked by rizzbot, since many weeks, all I talk about is how to do this story.
“Lol your roast rizzbot,” one friend asked me.
“You’re a cow with a robot lololol,” said another. I reached rizzbot on Tiktok, one move called desperation. But what else can I do? I’ve told the story of my editor, waiting for research, and – despite this beef – rizzbot is still interesting for the good readers of TechCrunch for techcrunch for the good readers.
As my friends laughed, I entered the twilight state. Not only did my stories die, but I was the girl who got blocked by a dancing robot.
Registration Campuague Amanda Silberling offered to help me. He approached my rizzbot account to ask why I was blocked. RizzBot gave Curt’s response: “Rizzbot blocks like he rizzes – smoothly, confidently, and with a sense of sadness.” Then he sent me a photo of the same middle finger. I thought, “Well, I’m not special enough for a unique flip off.“
But then, one of my friends offered a terrifying thought I hadn’t considered. “That’s not a human response. I’m scared for you.” It looks like I’ve created my first robot enemy, and the Ai Revolution has only just begun.
Or me? Did I really experience it with humans?
I know that RizzBot’s name is actually Jake the Robot.
The owner is a Youtuber and biochemist, According to reportsSee rank-. The robot itself is standard unitree g1 modeland anyone who can buy one $16,000 more than $70,000.
Rizzbot is trained with Kyle MorgensteinPhD student in a robotics lab in Austin. He worked together with the team for three weeks, teaching the robot How to dance and move its body. While most of the robot’s behavior is programmed, it is operated by remote control, with the real owner, apparently not Morgenstein, nearby.
If I have to estimate the technology behind the robot can – after talking with Malte F. Jung, there is something that can be used for other people, and another image associated with the roast, and the function used to roast or flirt with the person.
“The robot turned into a script about someone blaming the robot,” Jung told me. “Now robots will torture people. The product here is performance.”
Margensstein told other stores that real RizzBot owners just love to entertain people, love to share the joy they can bring.
It’s not clear who used RizzBot’s social account, although RizzBot sent the photo to Sponberling, as well as sending an error message – possibly an accident – about running out of GPU memory. The message indicates that an AI agent may be involved in the account and may automatically generate DM responses. It also states that the RizzBot only has 48GB of memory.
“What makes you so sure someone is?” My coder friend asked me about Instagram account Manager.
In the age of Ai, someone who can train robots is likely to connect LLM to Instagram DMS. My block is probably already safe, my coder friends say, which means I automatically trigger myself by DM’ing in the early hours – even if it’s a reply.
But there are a few hints that the humans on RizzBot’s social media are running: There are typos in the beginning of the DM at the beginning since I interviewed.
Still, unless RizzBot tells me that his social media manager has another bot (which doesn’t seem like a beef), I won’t know. Maybe it doesn’t matter.
“If I get $50,000 for a bot and a thousand for a 48GB memory machine, I won’t make anything past that,” said a fellow coder. “He’s made it very clear.”
It still rots the brain of a robot
RizzBot’s Tiktok page alone has racked up more than 45 million views. One video shows the rizzbot chasing people through the streets, while another sees it run into a pole and fall in the middle of the street. A viral video, possibly edited by AI, shows a rizzbot launched by a car.
“It’s funny, honestly,” one fellow founder told me, calling the viral video “robot brain rot.” He said the premise of AI as a robot is a “funny intermingling” of internet dank – or absurd – humor, and a place where a lot of social media is missing. “It’s interacting with people in a novel way.”
The rizzbot rabbit hole still has me thinking, thinking about the role of humanoids in our society. Every Sci-Fi movie I’ve heard – From “Blade Runner” to “i, robot” comes flooding back to me. Are you afraid that I have now made you an enemy?
“The performance is very noticeable for the main robot,” Jung said, adding that the rizzbot is “like a modern version with hand puppets.”
“Often, puppets are snarky,” he said.
Apart from the rizzbot, he mentioned the spring festival performance in China, where humanoids Perform folk dance together with humansand in San Francisco, meanwhile, People Head to the Boxing Ring To watch jab Exchange Robot.
“Robots will become the main mass market entertainers, show performers, entertainers, singers,” Dima GAZDA, said that GAZDA, told that humans will become niche, top talent. “As robots gain grace and emotionality, they will be mixed into performances and interactive experiences better than humans.”
Fortunately, robots now seem difficult to scale en masse, according to Jen Apicella, executive director of the Pittsburgh Robotics Network. So, I don’t have to worry about this beef with, say, the dancing legend, the physical robot commotion displayed at the front door. Not that kind of thinking.
It’s been over a week since I got blocked, and I think I know the joy I found watching rizzbots slice people up in the streets. My favorite video shows a woman twerking on a rizzbot. A crowd formed in the spectacle; People seemed to be entertained, itching, perhaps, for their own time to twerk on the robot.
I always joke with my friends that I want to keep a robot by my side, in case the revolution comes. But even as I write this article, I almost ran into another beef – this time with meta ai ai, which I’ve never used before. Accidentally started a conversation with Meta Ai while searching for old conversations with RizzBot on Instagram.
The meta bot replied, “Yeah, what’s good? You callin’ me rizzbot? 🤣 What’s poppin’?”
I decided it was time to go inside.