I know robotic technology is developing at an accelerated pace, but I had to idea we were at the point where a robot can break out of the laboratory where it’s being kept and then head to a political rally, but apparently we are.

Featured Image VIA

The weirdly named Promobot is a robot that the Russians have designed to be used in customer service – it can remember everyone it has ever met and is programmed to react to questions and interact with other people in a human way. It sounds creepy as fuck.

Promobot – short for Promotional Robot, it all makes sense now – had escaped from its lab again, having already escaped twice and caused chaos as it walked along busy streets, and this time showed up a political rally for Russian Parliament candidate Valery Kalachev in Moscow. Apparently he was asking members of the public for their opinions on various topics for further processing and analysis by the candidate’s team.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-ym0t4UFKI

A Promobot spokesperson explained what happened:

A member of the public called the police about Promobot’s actions.

Police asked to remove the robot away from the crowded area, and even tried to handcuff him.

According to eyewitnesses, the robot did not put up any resistance.

Like I said, creepy as fuck and kind of mind-blowing that this kind of stuff is even happening these days. I bet this isn’t the last we’ve heard of Promobot.

For more robot technology, check out Google’s new walking robot. Terrifying.