What would you do if you were a billionaire? Elon Musk is trying to get to Mars. Peter Thiel wants to live forever. And Jeff Bezos, well, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos apparently wants to rule the world in a gigantic robot. At least that’s the impression you might get from the photos and video taken yesterday.
Jeff Bezos testing out the Method-2 mecha robot by Hankook Mirae Technology yesterday at a private Amazon conference on automation (Twitter)
Yesterday at Amazon’s annual robotics conference Jeff Bezos slipped into something a bit more comfortable — a 4m-tall robot designed by Korean company Hankook Mirae Technology. Bezos, much like his fellow tech billionaires, seems to be on the fast track to supervillain status before we’re all inevitably annihilated in a nuclear war started by one of Trump’s butt-tweets.
Amazon’s private conference is known as MARS, an acronym for Machine learning, home Automation, Robotics and Space exploration. And Bezos looked like a kid in a candy store (a futuristic Richie Rich, to be exact) as he played around in the robot.
Jeff Bezos piloting a gigantic Method-2 robot designed by South Korean company Hankook Mirae Technology (Twitter)
“Why do I feel so much like Sigourney Weaver,” Bezos quipped, referring to the Alien movie franchise.
As the Verge points out, this particular robot, the Method-2, has been the source of plenty of speculation about whether it’s a fake. There was no evidence last night that the thing could walk, but the arms seemed to move as designed, with Bezos at the controls.
There are legitimate questions about the robot’s mobility (promo videos for the robot with it walking appear to be almost certainly faked) but that didn’t stop Bezos from having fun wildly flailing his arms around.
@JeffBezos “Why do I feel so much like #sigourneyweaver ?” @amazon #MARS2017 #openpodbaydoors ?? pic.twitter.com/HRRzmQtZbh
— Caleb Harper (@calebgrowsfood) March 20, 2017
I guess we should be happy that Bezos is getting to have his fun before we’re all destroyed in the upcoming nuclear war. Maybe he can even design one that’s protected from radiation. Or better yet, he could show up to his next meeting with Trump wearing the robotic suit.