Russian robotics company Promobot recently announced plans to buy the rights to use someone’s face and voice on its robots forever for the price of $200,000.
Known for producing hyper-realistic, humanlike robots, Promobot is currently developing “a humanoid robot-assistant which will work in hotels, shopping malls and other crowded places,” and is in the market for a “kind and friendly” face to use on it. To that end, the Russian startup has announced that it is ready to pay $200,000 to anyone willing to transfer the rights to their face to Promobot forever. The company clarified that it will accept applications from people of all races and genders, with the ‘age 25 and over’ being the only requirement mentioned.
“Our company is developing technologies in the field of facial recognition, as well speech, autonomous navigation, artificial intelligence, and other areas of robotics,” a recent Promobot press release reads. “Since 2019, we have been actively manufacturing and supplying humanoid robots to the market. Our new clients want to launch a large-scale project, and as for this, they need to license a new robot appearance to avoid legal delays.”
Interestingly, Promobot found itself in legal trouble a while back, when it got sued by Arnold Schwarznegger for $10,000,000 for using his appearance on robots without asking for permission. They’re probably hoping to make sure that doesn’t happen again by paying a much smaller sum upfront.
After a face is selected by Promobot and its clients, the winning applicant will need to have a 3D model of their face taken, to be used for the robot’s external features. But the contract also gives the company rights to the person’s voice, so the winner will also have to “dictate at least 100 hours of speech material” to create the robot’s voice.
Licensing your face and voice to a robotics company “for an unlimited period” is a scary proposition for many people, but there are plenty who wouldn’t think twice before signing on the dotted line for $200,000. Promobot stopped taking applications on Monday, after being inundated with offers.
“Today we have received over 20,000 applications and our client has decided to suspend the request collection. We want to say thanks to all participants,” the Russian company explained on its website.
