--- title: "YouTuber Meets His Creepy Robot Double and Freaks Out" description: "Ever wanted to meet your robot doppelgänger? For an unspecified large sum of money, you can have one made — if you dare." date: "2022-04-13" modified: "2022-04-13" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/creepy-robot-double" categories: - "Robotics" - "Robots and Machines" tags: - "ameca" - "Humanoid Robots" - "the digest" - "uncanny valley" --- # YouTuber Meets His Creepy Robot Double and Freaks Out ![Ever wanted to meet your robot doppelgänger? For an unspecified large sum of money, you can have one made — if you dare.]() *\Image: Tom Scott\* ## Double Trouble Ever wanted to meet your doppelgänger? For an unspecified large sum of money, you can have one made — if you dare. British vlogger Tom Scott, known for initially being sponsored by VPN companies only to [declare in a 2019 video]() that many of the companies are lying to customers , decided that his robot double could shill for yet another VPN company much better than he could. To achieve that end, he looked to Engineered Arts, the robotics company also located on the soggy British isles who [made the freakily lifelike Ameca robot]() whose facial expressions are, as company representative Morgan Roe admits in the video, absolute "uncanny valley" fodder. ## Sketchy Techy In classic vlogger style, Scott took viewers on a journey to EA's facilities in the south of England, where he had cameras follow him as he met his doppelgänger for the first time... and let's just say it left him speechless. As Roe notes while Scott veritably freaks out as he gazes upon the robot version of himself directly in the face, it's particularly uncanny for the vlogger because what he's seeing isn't a mirrored version of himself, but rather, a replica of his face head-on, the way we see other people. At one point, Scott declares that when making eye contact with the him-bot, his brain registered it as a person for a split second — an admission that is, admittedly, pretty fascinating. Scott didn't disclose whether he paid to commission his robot double, which is head and shoulders only, though he did say in the comments of the video that it was later "fully decommissioned." It's neither that [infamous "sex with Google Glass" app]() nor what is perhaps the best "30 Rock" sketch ever written about [meeting other versions of one's self](), but it's still pretty gnarly — and if humanoid robots are the future, it may be an experience we all, eventually, share. **More on creepy robots:** *[Scientists Built a Robot With Jetpacks and a Creepy, Doll-Like Face]()* ## 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]()