I Challenged Boston Dynamics' Famous Atlas Robot

"I'm so sorry". Robot: That's all I needed to hear. I'll let you live.

To be fair Cleo, when you pushed the robot it was not expecting it. You were expecting to be pushed so we can see you tense in the video ready for the push. In that sense you had a big advantage over Atlas. I wonder how you would have performed if you had been blindfolded, and not known when the push was coming? So, Atlas's response was even better than you originally thought.

People always talking about how they humanize robots because they feel bad for seeing them being bullied. Meanwhile, I'm apologizing to my instruments whenever I accidentally bump em against something. Like humans will feel bad for hitting a stone under the right circumstances. And the companion cube in Portal is one of the most loved videogame characters and that's in-universe literally just a weighted cube you can put on big buttons.

Those movements just feel so natural. You can't help feeling that Atlas is thinking, 'I have a breaking point. You push me again, I'll pull your arms out their sockets.'

"OH no, I told my robot to put away the groceries, and it stepped on my dog". What a world to live in when that becomes a real statement.

Cleo trying to do a backflip and immediately regretting it is the best part 😂

Cleo: "Don't Step on my Dog" Robot: "Damn you are so picky"

13:58 The whole examples about groceries were so funny. Pure comedy

I'm surprised you didn't mention that the primary reason for the Asimo's design/size is that it makes it eye level to a human sitting down, which is the most common scenario for aged-care/health-care robots to be looking after us. The humanoid aspect was also chosen for Asimo since it makes it easier to relate to it.

Wow, what an amazing journey you just took us on. I had no idea that making robots more like us could make things so complex. It really made me appreciate how awesome our human bodies are and all the things they do every day. Makes you wonder, if we had humanoid robots in our daily lives, what tasks would we give them? Definitely something to think about. Great watch!

"Why we need robots that look like humans? Because we have build the world for humans" "I know Atlas is not a human, but we are" 11:45

Love your videos. I'm a science teacher and used this in my robotics class, great intro and overview, kids got really engaged. Keep up the awesome work.

The part where he's telling Cleo to push Atlas harder and she's like "are you sure?" reminds me of the Milgram experiment. 😂

On some level, you know the human body is incredibly complex, but I guess it doesn't really hit you until you think about getting a robot to act the same way.

Kudos for a thoughtful, engaged, critically edited look at our relationship to automation. Please consider this maxim: “Be careful what you wish for.”

Really liked how you structured the video with the questions. Great job!

My dog can get me a beer in the fridge, so I’m fine without robots.

I love 8:28, you can see one of the engineers in the background grinning at Atlas recovering from the push.

Cleo, I'm new to your channel and am so impressed by your skills as a researcher and communicator! I could watch your content all day as you bring a spirit of curiosity and passion to every subject you touch.

after seeing the "push" autocorrection: think about this. A) Atlas is very good at calculating balance correction. If you push it, it will autocorrect. B) Now say you fall into atlas accidentally because YOU tripped. Atlas now autocorrects its balance and crushes your limb in the process because it valued its balance over a much MUCH harder calculation including your choice of balancing and autocorrection in real time. C) everything in (b) gets multiplied even further into complexity as people have entirely different levels of coordination, or accident experience. D) it chooses a neutral option, of collapse, and now a dangerous heavy piece of machinery with limbs is falling with/on you. The amount of corrections and processing power to function safely around humans is off the charts.