Get ready for a lot more stories like this, kids. Man, only in Japan would they build a robot designed to love. The experiment gone wrong took place in Kyoto, at a Toshiba robotic research facility.
Why Toshiba is experimenting with hugbots is beyond me, but that’s not the issue here (never thought I’d say that). After the robot (Kenji) became very friendly indeed with a doll, it became infatuated with a female intern. One night it blocked the exit and began to hug her with his enormous hydraulic arms. He expressed his sentiment in animal noises.
The intern phoned lab staff and they freed her, but somehow I doubt this is the last we’ll hear of Kenji. It seems Perry Bible Fellowship was prescient in its prediction:
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