Staff had to restrain a dancing robot after it went wild at a California restaurant

When we think of the existential threats of new technology, we usually think of something like the recent negotiations between Anthropic and the Pentagon over how artificial intelligence will be used in the military. It’s terrifying to think about, how long will it take before a nuclear weapon can be detonated without any human intervention?

We’ve spent so much time thinking about these potential disasters that we haven’t prepared ourselves for the most pressing danger in our midst: dancing robots.

A dancing robot at Haidilao restaurant in Cupertino, California, danced vigorously, got too close to the table, and began smashing plates and sending plates and chopsticks everywhere, prompting restaurant staff to intervene, according to a video posted by user Meooow on the Chinese social media network Xiaohongshu.

From what we can see from the video, at least three employees struggled to restrain the robot as it flung its arms. One of Haidilao’s employees appears to be looking at her phone, perhaps trying to toggle something in an app that controls the robot. The robot — which appears to be an AgiBot

If you are not familiar with hot pot, you should know that, as the name suggests, it involves very hot soup pots. Nobody likes spilled food, but if a robot were to drop bowls of bone broth, it would not only be a cooking disaster, it could seriously burn someone. Not to mention any potential damage caused by blunt force from the automated machine now in operation.

When The Killers sang “Are We Humans Or Are We Dancers,” we didn’t realize they were asking us to take a stand in the robot wars of the future.

Haidilao confirmed the mechanical faults in a statement to NBC News, but denied that the robot was “malfunctioning or out of control.”

“In this case, the robot was moved closer to the dining table at the guest’s request, which is not a typical operating setup,” the Chinese hot pot restaurant chain told NBC News in a statement. “The limited space affected her movement during the performance.”

AgiBot did not immediately respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment.

Haidilao experimented with a “smart restaurant” in Beijing, using robotic servers and gravy mixing machines. It seems that this Haidilao restaurant was using this robot for entertainment purposes only, but things got out of control when it danced near customers.

Several startups are working to bring robotics to the food service industry, such as Shin Starr, which is working on making fully autonomous kitchens. Pudu Robotics’ BellaBot, a cute cat-like robot, can guide customers to their seats and take out their food when they’re done.

This is probably safer than human bots, at least for now – BellaBot doesn’t have any limbs.