Outrage as Saudi Arabia’s first male robot touches female reporter inappropriately

 

Saudi Arabia's first male robot 'Muhammad' allegedly touched a woman inappropriately, sparking outrage on social media platforms with one user calling it a "pervert". Recently, Muhammad was unveiled during the second edition of DeepFast in Riyadh.

Video of the incident went viral on social media forums. It shows the robot stretching its right hand toward a female reporter when she was giving a piece to the camera.

Some of the users have alleged that the movements of the robot looked intentional when the female reporter, identified as Rawya Kassem, was talking about it.

The robot has been slammed for its gesture and for "harassing" the reporter. "Coded to be a creep," "Womaniser robot", and "Pervert robot", were some remarks made for Muhammad.

But one user also shared a video, which showed the robot moving its hands the same way. The user claimed that the "robot programmed in this way, she [anchor] stood at the wrong spot".

On the main stage at DeepFest, the humanoid robot said, "I am Muhammad, the first Saudi robot in the form of a man. I was manufactured and developed here in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as a national project to demonstrate our achievements in the field of artificial intelligence."

On its official site, DeepFest stated that it is the premier meeting place for the global Artificial Intelligence ecosystem of thought-leaders, change-makers, big tech, data scientists, innovators, enterprises, academia, start-ups, and entrepreneurs leading innovation across businesses.

By Martin Oduor