Video of Saudi Arabia's first male robot harassing woman reporter sparks controversy

In a shocking incident, Saudi Arabia's first male robot allegedly harassed a woman reporter during the unveiling ceremony, drawing criticism from the netizens.

The incident happened when the designers' team organised an event to showcase the Kingdom's progress in the field of technology and innovation.

But, the event was marred by controversy when a robot inappropriately touched the female presenter Rawiya Al-Qasimi.

In the viral video, the journalist could be seen standing close to the robot as she was giving a beeper about the technology.

Saudi Robots were announced today🤖

pic.twitter.com/f6QHkxzqQO

— Tansu Yegen (@TansuYegen) March 5, 2024

The robot extended its hand toward Qasimi's body, prompting her to move away carefully.

However, the netizens pointed out the behavior of the robot as an inappropriate gesture, while some termed it a technical glitch.

Some media users said that the robots usually do hand movements as part of their functionality.

As the video garnered attention from social media users, the engineers said that the incident happened due to a technical malfunction.