Russian state TV has heaped praise on a state-of-the-art robot shown off at a youth robotics event, but there's a small problem - it was just a man in a robot suit.
"It's entirely possible one of these [students] could dedicate himself to robotics," a Russia-24 anchor told viewers, "especially as at the forum they have the opportunity to look at the most modern robots."
The report said the robot, named Boris, had "already learned to dance and he's not that bad", according to The Guardian.
He was also able to talk.
"I know mathematics well but I also want to learn to draw," he said in a stereotypically robotic voice.
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The organisers of the event reportedly didn't pretend the robot was real, but state TV did. It didn't take long for people to notice the robot moved a lot more realistically than other state-of-the-art robots, such as Boston Dynamics' Atlas.
The nail in the coffin was a scene in the news report itself, however, the man's neck clearly visible in a gap between the robot's head and shoulders.
The costume turned out to be one made by a company called Show Robots under the name 'Alyosha'. Accurately, the company's website says the Alyosha costumer delivers "an almost complete illusion that you have a real robot" at a cost of almost $5500.
And thanks to Russian state TV, now they have the perfect advertisement.
Newshub.
