A couple of Thursdays ago, I awoke at nearly 4:30 a.m. to adizzying Instagram DM.
Rizzbot, apopular humanoidrobotwith more than1 million TikTok followersand morethanhalf a million followerson Instagram, had sent me a photo: he was flipping me off.
No words.Noexplanation.Just a robot with its middle finger raised.
Although I was shocked, a sinking feeling meant that Icould guess why.A few weeks ago,Rizzbot— or the person who runs the account — and I chatted about apossiblestory. Ifound the accountinteresting: ahumanoidwalking the streets of Austin wearing Nike dunks and a cowboy hat.It’sknown forroasting, but alsoflirtingand havinga good time.The name Rizz comes from theGenZ slang wordrizzfor charisma.
I was intrigued by the rising popularity of the account.Peopleareusuallyuncomfortablewith humanoids. There are privacy concerns and job displacement fears. Online, people sling slurs atthem, most notably calling them “clankers.”In the robotics world,meanwhile,expertsaredebatingwhat they will be best suited to do.
IsawRizzbotas a role model making people feel comfortable interacting witha humanoid.
Rizzbotagreed to an interview, soI started reachingout to experts to discuss the future of humanoids in preparation for a story. Two weeks after myinitialDMwithRizzbot, I told it I would finally sendit some interviewquestionsonthe followingMonday or Tuesday.
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But life happened, and I missed my own deadline. Iwas finallyprepared tosendthe questionsfirst thingThursdaya.m.,andI thought, No big deal.
Too late.In the wee hoursthat night,Rizzbotsent that photo.Message clear: You broke your word, soeffoff.
Ididn’tgive up.Iapologizedto the robot (or to its human?)for thedelayandpromised I would send the questionsfirst thing during office hours.ButwhenI tried a few hours later,Iwasmet with “user not found.”
The robot had blocked me.
Did I triggera fail-safe?
My friends thought it washilariousthat I wasflipped off andblocked byRizzbot,since for weeks,allI spoke about was how excited I was to do this story.
“LOLRizzbotroasted you,” one friend texted me.
“YOU ARE BEEFING WITH A ROBOTLOLOLOL,” anothersaid. Ireached outtoRizzbotonTikTok, a moveonefriend called desperate.But whatelse couldI do?I had pitched the story to my editor, spent hours researching, and — despite this beef —Rizzbotwould still beinterestingto TechCrunch’s tech-loving readers.
While my friends were laughing, Ientereda state of gloom.Not only was my story dead, but I was also now the girl who got blocked by a dancing robot.
MycolleagueAmandaSilberlingoffered to help me. Shereached out totheRizzbotaccount toask why I was blocked.Rizzbotgave a curt response:“Rizzbotblocks like he rizzes — smooth, confident, and with zero remorse.”It then sent her the same middle fingerphoto it sent me.Ithought,“Wow,Iwasn’teven special enough for aunique flipoff.“
But then, onefriendoffered a terrifying thought Ihadn’teven considered.“Itwasn’ta human response.I’mscared for you.”It seems Ihad already made my first robot enemy, and the AI revolution has only just begun.
Or did I?WasI reallybeefing witha human?
I found out thatRizzbot’sname is actually Jake theRobot.
Its owner is ananonymous YouTuberand biochemist,according to reports. The robot itself isastandardUnitreeG1 Model,andanyone can buy one for$16,000 to over $70,000.
Rizzbotwastrained by KyleMorgenstein,a PhD student at UT Austin’s robotic laboratory.Heworked alongside ateam for around threeweeks,teachingthe robot how to dance and move limbs.While much of the robot’s behavior is pre-programmed,it’soperatedby a remote control, withitstrue owner,apparently notMorgenstein,nearbycommanding it.
If I had to guess how the tech behind the robot works — after talking withMalte F. Jung, an associate professor at Cornell University who studied information sciences— someone triggers therobot’sbehaviors, and a picture is taken of whoever is interacting with the robot, run through ChatGPT or some other LLM,anda text-to-speech function isthenused to roastor flirt withthe person.
“The robot turns the scriptaround ofpeople abusing robots,” Jung told me. “Now the robot gets to abuse people. The product here is theperformance.”
Morgensteintold other outlets that the actual owner ofRizzbotjust likes to entertain people, likes to show the joy that humanoids are capable of bringing.
It’sunclear who runs theRizzbotsocial accounts, though whenRizzbotsentthat photo toSilberling, it also sent an error message—probablyanaccident —about being out of GPU memory. The messageindicatedthatan AI agentis probablyinvolved in running thataccount andismaybe auto-generatingDM responses.It alsoindicatedthatRizzbotonly has 48GB of memory.
“What makes you confident it was ever a person?”mycoder friend asked meabout the Instagram account manager.
In the age of AI,someone capable of training arobotislikely capableof connecting anLLM to Instagram DMs.My blockcouldevenhave beenafail-safe,my coder friend said,meaning I automatically triggered it myselfbyDM’ingin the early hours — even if it was a reply.
But there are some clues that a humanis involvedin runningRizzbot’ssocial media:There were typos initsinitialDMreplyto me when Ifirstasked for an interview.
Still,unlessRizzbottells meif his social media manager is another bot(which seems unlikely given our beef),Iwilllikelyneverknow.Maybe itdoesn’tmatter.
“If they got $50,000 for a bot anda couple thousand for a 48GB memory machine, Iwouldn’tput anything past ‘em,” mycoder friendpointed out. “They’re clearly committed to the bit.”
It’s still robot brain rot
Rizzbot’sTikTokpage alonehas racked upmore than 45millionviews.One video showsRizzbotchasing people in the streets, while another sees it running into a pole and falling in the middle of the street.A viral video,presumablyalteredby AI,showsRizzbotbeing run over by a car.
“It seems hilarious, honestly,” one founder friend told me, calling the viral videos “robot brain rot.” He said the AI is rudimentary, but the robot’s premise is a “funny intermingling” of internet dank — or absurdist — humor, and the lightheartedness that much of social media is missing these days. “It interacts with people in a novel way.”
MyRizzbotrabbit hole still had me thinking, though, about the role of humanoids in our society.Everysci-fimovieI’veever watched — from“Blade Runner”to“I, Robot”came flooding back to me.How scared should I be now thatI’vemade my first humanoid enemy?
“Performance seems to be reallythebig use case for these kinds of robots,” Jungtold me, adding thatRizzbotwas“like a modern version of street performance with a hand puppet.”
“Often, hand puppets are snarky,” he continued.
Aside fromRizzbot, he mentioned the Spring Festival performance in China, where humanoidsperformedfolk dancealongside humans,and in San Francisco, meanwhile, people headto the boxing ringto watch robots exchange jabs.
“Robots will become the primary mass market entertainers, show performers, dancers, singers, comedians, and companions,” DimaGazda, the founder of the robotics companyEsperBionics, told me, adding that humans will become niche, top talent. “As robots gain grace and emotional intelligence, they’ll blend into performances and interactive experiences better than humans.”
Luckily,right now,dancing robots seem hard to scaleen masse, according toJenApicella, executive director at the Pittsburgh Robotics Network.SoIdon’thave to worry aboutthis beef escalating to, say,a legion of dancing, rizzing robotsphysically showing upat my doorstep. Not that such a thought crossed my mind.
It’snow beenovera weeksinceI was blocked,and I find myself reminiscing on the joy I found watchingRizzbotchase people in the streets.Myfavoritevideo showedawoman twerking onRizzbot.Acrowd formed around the spectacle; people seemed genuinely entertained, itching, perhaps, fortheirownmoment to twerk on a robot.
I alwaysjoked to my friends thatIwanted to keeprobots on my side in case the revolutioncame.But even as Iwrotethisarticle,Ifound myselfalmostinanother AI beef — this time with Meta AI, which I had neverused before.Iaccidentally started a conversation with Meta AI while looking for my old conversations withRizzbotonInstagram.
Meta’sbotreplied, “Yoo, what’s good fam? Youcallin’meRizzbot?🤣What’spoppin’?”
Idecided it was time to log off.
