UnNews:Russia’s new humanoid robot faceplants on stage
Tuesday, November 12, 2025
Russia
Russia’s AI-powered humanoid robot, AIdol, lost balance and took an Olympic dive on stage while cameras were recording. AIdol was going to reveal themselves to the public for the first time but things didn’t go as expected. What was supposed to be a demonstration of Russia’s AI development and progress got turned into a laughingstock. This goes to show that even AI robots can have performance anxiety. To add on to the humour, the robot fell to the theme song of "Rocky.” The robot was manufactured by the geniuses at Russian robotics company Idol. It was meant to be a demonstration of the motherland’s technological might but instead, AIdol swiftly became a tale about the importance of teaching your robot how to stand up. The fall quickly gained popularity on social media with users laughing about how Russia’s most advanced AI robot can’t do the simple act of standing up.
The robot was to show off human-like movement and expressions but instead opted to exhibit a realistic recreation of Franz Ferdinand during his assassination. Audience members were left questioning whether this was a malfunction or the most elegant demonstration of what happens when you down 10 liters of vodka. A clip shared on social media by a user showed the robot taking a few small steps before deciding that now was the perfect time to take a nap. The last few seconds of the clip show presenters rushing to drag away the motionless robot.
The Idol CEO later blamed "a calibration error" and “insufficient lighting” but this is obviously a cover up to hide the fact that their robot decided it was time for a nap. The CEO has even called this a learning experience because nothing teaches you how to stand up better than tripping on nothing. The robot, which comprises of 67 percent domestically produced components as a, “Fuck you” to Western sanctions. There are plans to increase that figure to 93 percent in future which will likely lead to more dramatic falls.
AIdol’s soulless uncanny valley face, powered by 19 servos, is designed to display basic emotions. Such emotions that are included are: misery, pain, and tiredness as displayed on their debut.
The incident occurred just days after Elon Musk unveiled his new Tesla’s robot, which successfully walked without tripping which is quite frankly boring. AIdol, it seems, wanted something more original and less boring which led to him recreating what humans call, “falling down.”
Sources[edit | edit source]
- Georgina Jedikovska "Russia’s first humanoid robot falls flat on its face during stage debut to Rocky theme" Interesting Engineering, November 12th, 2025