Robots keep getting creepier
by Jaures Yip
It’s not just nuts and bolts keeping robots together — now they can be made with living skin. Skin that can be made to smile.
Researchers at the University of Tokyo revealed on Tuesday a rather unsettling humanoid robot covered with lab-grown skin. The team said it was able to mimic human skin ligaments by bonding skin tissue to perforated 3D facial molds and 2D robots.
A press release said the team hoped the advancement would be “useful in the cosmetics industry and to help train plastic surgeons.”
While the development could prove helpful, some people online reacted to the robot’s fleshy skin and facial movements with jokes or said they found it disturbing. One person on X wrote, “You will live to see man-made made horrors beyond your comprehension.” Another said: “We don’t want this. Nobody wants this. Stop it.”
The researchers said that, unlike other materials, biological skin granted these robots self-healing capabilities without requiring triggers such as heat or pressure.