Russia Built a Grotesque Robot Newscaster and Put It on TV

A robot TV anchor accused a mayoral candidate of kicking a homeless cat.

News Anchor Horror

A humanoid robot TV news anchor named Alex read the news yesterday on Russia-24, a state-owned television channel. The silicone-faced anchor presented some run-of-the-mill updates — and even touched on a lurid case in which local authorities were hunting down a mayoral candidate who allegedly kicked a homeless cat.

The unsettling humanoid TV anchor was built by Russian startup Promobot. So far, the company has mostly produced screen-faced service robots for local banks. Alex's terrifying silicone face moves thanks to 29 motors, and is modeled to look like the company's founder Alexei Yuzhakov, according to The Telegraph.

You can be the judge whether it's a good likeness.

Bad Robot

In a similar — yet unrelated — example of Russian robotics on state TV, Russia-24 showed footage a humanoid robot called "Robot Boris" on stage at a youth forum about robotics in December 2018. The twist: it turned out to be a man in a suit.

Alex is definitely a robot though. Or at least we hope he is.

READ MORE: Robot newscaster unsettles Russian state TV viewers [The Telegraph]

More on Russian robots:Russian TV Tried to Pass a Man in a Suit off as A High Tech Robot