--- title: "Mainstream Publications Are Getting Suckered by a Ridiculous Fake News Story About a “Pregnancy Robot”" description: "At least six news sites in the UK and US have run a pretty obvious fake news story about \"pregnancy robots\" — and they're still live." date: "2025-08-22" modified: "2025-08-22" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/publications-fake-news-pregnancy-robot" categories: - "Robotics" - "Robots and Machines" tags: - "fake news" - "Humanoid Robots" - "misinformation" - "pregnancy" --- # Mainstream Publications Are Getting Suckered by a Ridiculous Fake News Story About a “Pregnancy Robot” ![At least six news sites in the UK and US have run a pretty obvious fake news story about "pregnancy robots" — and they're still live.]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* From [in vitro fertilization]() to [designer babies](), the world of reproductive science has seen [advances]() over the years that have profoundly [changed the way humans]() conceive and give birth. Unfortunately, [artificial human wombs]() are not yet among those breakthroughs that have made the jump from concept to real life. But that hasn't stopped a number of news sites from running with a bonkers story about plans to build a humanoid "pregnancy robot" that carries real human fetuses to term in a synthetic womb installed into its hardware. In recent weeks, outlets including *[Newsweek](),* [*The Telegraph*]() and the [*New York Post*]() have published stories about these purportedly forthcoming pregnancy bots. Said to be the brainchild of a Chinese business owner named Zhang Qifeng, the alleged founder of a company called Kaiwa Technology, these gestational robots could supposedly be in prototype by next year — that is, if the story was true, and the man behind this shocking invention verifiably existed. As [*Snopes* reports](), this fancy bit of flagrant misinformation seems to have started circulating in earnest around August 11, when the [Korean news outlet *Chosun*]() cited reports from a purported Chinese tech news site called *Kuai Ke Zhi* about Zhang and his ostensible plans for robotic pregnancy. If it exists, *Kuai Ke Zhi* doesn't seem to have any digital footprint. Just as sketchily, *Chosun* also included a screenshot of a man who is supposed to be Zhang, which the Korean site claimed had come from Douyin, China's equivalent of TikTok. Shown below, the image shows a man in glasses sitting in what appears to be a newsroom, looking at and talking to another man who we can only see partially and from behind. Curiously, when we ran the image through Google Translate, it listed the Mandarin words superimposed on the image as saying Zhang Qifeng is the "founder of Shenzen Kaiva Robotics" — a slight mistranslation, it seems, of the real-life Chinese electronics manufacturer known as [Shenzen Kaifa]() Technologies. Zhang, notably, is not the founder of the multinational manufacturer, and we were not able to find any trace of him associated with it. ![An Asian man with round, wire-rimmed glasses looks at someone off camera in what appears to be a newsroom, which is bathed in blue and chrome. There is white text over the top of the image, written in Mandarin.]() In that supposed video — which we couldn't find any sign of, beyond that one purported screenshot — the tech CEO was said to announce his pregnancy robot plans, and *Chosun* even included quotes from the supposed announcement. "I initiated development to solve the population decline issue," Zhang allegedly said during the purported interview. "While commercial surrogacy is designated as illegal, I want to meet the demand of those who do not wish to marry but want to have children." As misinformation is wont to do, the story traveled rapidly once it escaped containment. On August 15, both the notorious [*Daily Mail* tabloid]() and the [spammy]() science blog [*Interesting Engineering*]() picked it up. Soon after, the story of the Chinese CEO's miracle robot also cropped up on the nursing site [*Nurse.org*]() and the [newsy mom blog *Motherly*](), neither of which questioned its veracity as they broadcasted the phony story to their niche audiences. As *Snopes* noted, Zhang was listed in some of the outlets as being affiliated with Singapore's Nanyang Technological University (NTU) as either a PhD graduate or professor. When the site's dedicated debunkers contacted NTU, however, a spokesperson said "no one by the name of 'Zhang Qifeng' graduated from NTU with a PhD," and there was no research on "gestational robots" being conducted there. With so much evidence suggesting that Zhang and his company do not exist — never mind the fact that artificial wombs [don't exist yet](), full stop, either in stationary or grafted-to-a-robot form — it seems pretty clear that this story is fabricated from top to bottom. But that clearly hasn't stopped half a dozen news sites from running with the story, to everybody's detriment. **More on misinformation:** [*Wired and Business Insider Accidentally Published AI-Generated Slop Articles by Seemingly Fake Journalist*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()