There’s a robot for that.
What a time to be alive — people are marrying AI bots, and now robots might soon be able to carry babies.
Reportedly, China is working on designing a bot with an artificial womb — which will receive nutrients through a hose — in its abdomen that will soon be able to carry a fetus for approximately 10 months before giving birth, according to Chosun Biz.
The “pregnancy robot” was conceptualized by Dr. Zhang Qifeng, founder of Kaiwa Technology, which is based in Guangzhou — a city in China. If all goes according to plan, the prototype will make its debut next year.
For those struggling to conceive, hiring a humanoid to carry their baby will cost 100,000 yuan, $13,927.09 — a price significantly less than a human surrogate, which can cost someone in the US anywhere from $100,000 to $200,000.
“The artificial womb technology is already in a mature stage, and now it needs to be implanted in the robot’s abdomen so that a real person and the robot can interact to achieve pregnancy, allowing the fetus to grow inside,” Qifeng told Chosun Biz.
Many questions are still unanswered at this time, including how the egg and sperm will be fertilized and inserted into the womb and how the bot will give birth.
Obviously, with this sort of technology comes a lot of questions and concerns regarding ethical and legal issues.
“We have held discussion forums with authorities in Guangdong Province and submitted related proposals while discussing policy and legislation,” the doctor said, addressing people’s uneasiness towards this.
Speaking of freaky bots — a humanoid was spotted walking around Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan earlier this month, doing everything from grabbing a hot dog to trying on sneakers.
The intent behind this shocking scene of the KOID-branded bot acting like a human New Yorker was to promote global asset management firm KraneShares’s Global Humanoid and Embodied Intelligence Index ETF, which came out earlier this summer.
“I feel like I was witnessing firsthand . . . the first lightbulb or the first car,” said Joseph Dube, head of marketing at KraneShares. “People were amazed. Some people were terrified. It was a major mixed bag of reactions.”
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