Are we seeing a machine uprising? No. Video’s robot attack is an animation
If your time is short
- This is an animation created by filmmakers.
In what looks like footage from a security camera, two robots can be seen moving boxes while a person walks by nearby. But then a box drops off a conveyor belt.
“This robot messes up the assembly line,” reads text over the video. The camera pans to the other robot as text appears that says: “This robot gets ‘angry.’” The robot smashes the conveyer belt until sparks appear, and then the camera pans to the person, whose hands fly up defensively.
“Worker tries to calm it down like a wild animal?” the text says. But then the robot picks up a box and throws it at the person, who falls over.
“Robot attacks worker!” the text says.
An Instagram post sharing the video was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)
A TikTok handle can be seen in the video, and we used it to find the original, which was posted by @thelukepilgrim on Jan. 31, 2022.
“Has the robot revolt already begun?!” the caption says.
But Luke Pilgrim is the co-owner of Sozo Bear Films, a Georgia-based film company that shares its work on TikTok.
“We have realized there is an audience for high quality sci-fi and horror shorts,” the company’s Patreon page says. “Our main goal is to build a community of people who enjoy the work we are creating.”
The comments left on the original TikTok post of the robot video reflects that — and makes clear that — this is a work of fiction, and not actual security footage of a robot attacking a factory worker.
“Damn nice editing,” one person said, to which the account replied with a prayer hands emoji.
“It looked really real and I got a bit scared I gotta admit it,” someone else said. The account replied with two grinning emojis.
When someone asked what the animation is called, the account replied that the company “made it in Blender,” animation software.
We rate claims that this is real security camera footage of a robot attacking a factory worker False.
