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A 'male' humanoid robot was unveiled in Saudi Arabia. It then inappropriately touched a female reporter.
(www.businessinsider.com)
this post was submitted on 12 Mar 2024
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Must be a slow news day.
The robot is just moving around, AI isn't remotely close to at the point where a physical robot can "grope" a person intentionally.
The fact the video is so short says a lot. I'd expect anyone who watched would just see that the robot moves around all the time, and the reporter wasn't supposed to stand so close to it.
This isn't news.
Honestly kinda edges onto racism territory. "Hurr hirr, Saudi robot, groped woman, it's cuz it was made in Saudi"
Ew.
It's not exactly newsworthy, but that a Saudi robot, from a country known for its bad treatment of women, touches a woman inappropriately, even if just by accident, reads like satire.
Making assumptions about someone/something based off its country of origin sounds pretty xenophobic to me.
The robot didn't "grope" a woman, it moved its hand as an animitronic, and she was clearly standing right next to it during its animations.
The fact that was blatantly blown into "groping" abd the fact the article felt the need to repeat that it happened in Saudi repeatedly, over and over, should trip the xenophobia alarm.
Consider if it was an article about how an animitronic robot that moved and knocked a man's wallet out of his hand because he walked to close past it. I.agine if articles turned that into "Jewish made robot tries to steal man's wallet!" Unironically.
You'd probably look at that and go "yeah okay, that's pretty fucked up, whyd the do that?" Right?
You are trying very hard to find things to be outraged over.
The robot was unveiled in Saudi Arabia and Saudi Arabia has a well-documented history of treating women very poorly. I hope that's not something you'd dispute. Of course the robot is an automaton without any agency, but the combination of the sad history of Saudi Arabia's treatment of women combined with the fact that the robot was made up to look like a Saudi male and the touching of a women in an inappropriate manner was what made this humorous. "Even their robots mistreat women!" would be the gist of it. When the bad behavior comes from the very top and is so enshrined in the culture, as is the case in Saudi Arabia, then you don't have to mention the fact that not all Saudi men are this bad every time there's a conversation about it. Especially not when we're talking about a joke/satire. Because then we're just highlighting a single aspect and are not having a nuanced conversation.
Who is "they"?
What if you found out women in Saudi contributed to the creation of this robot?
What if the robot wasn't even made by people from Saudi?
The fact you wrote "their", summarizing an entire nation of people as being the same, is where the Xenophobia/racism kicks in.
"It's just a joke bruh" is basically your defence.
I don't get it, it's not funny.
Yeah, I believe you, that you're not getting it. From what I've seen from you here, you don't seem like a happy person that can enjoy a little humor.
Oh I love humor.
I just don't find very thinly veiled racism funny.
It's just a silly story.
I agree that it's not newsworthy, but what "race" is it edging toward singling out or looking down on?
Arabic People? The race the robot is designed to look like and is dressed as?
Literally look at the other comments on this thread.
I've read all of them, and didn't see anything about race, unless you see Saudi Arabians as a race, specifically the people in power. There are many different Arab peoples with completely different looks and values to Saudi rulers. I see a lot of critical comments about a pervasive patriarchal culture that is consistently and unapologetically misogynistic, actively opposed to equal rights for women (and other marginalized groups), and I don't see any problem with that kind of criticism in the same way I don't when it comes up in reference to nations where there isn't a dominant religious monoculture but still systemic repression of human rights. It's dangerous to conflate criticism of sexism and theocratic repression with racism.
SMH