CHINESE SCIENTISTS RUMORED TO BE WORKING ON A ROBOT THAT COULD GIVE BIRTH TO A HUMAN BABY, BUT IS IT REAL?
A pregnant robot capable of giving birth to human children? It may seem like something out of a sci-fi movie, but according to an onslaught of media reports, we’re not too far away from it actually happening. It all started when word broke that an interview with Zhang Qifeng, the CEO of Kaiwa Technology and a PhD candidate at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, had been published in Chinese media. A humanoid pregnant robot that might serve as a surrogate is almost complete, according to this Chinese robotics business.
Although it's unclear how the embryo will be put into the artificial womb, Zhang claims that the robot will be able to carry a human pregnancy to term and give birth to it. The scientist says that initial animal testing has been promising, and that the fetus will grow in amniotic fluid fed nutrients through a tube connected at the belly button to mimic human pregnancy.
Zhang says, “Now it needs to be implanted in the robot’s abdomen so that a real person and the robot can interact to achieve pregnancy, allowing the fetus to grow inside.”
Zhang also stated to journalists that he anticipates a first prototype being sold sometime in 2026 for 100,000 yuan, or roughly $14,000. As expected, there have been significant responses to the revelation of the pregnant robot. Yi Fuxian, a demographic research obstetrician at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, told Newsweek that although the robot was “probably just a gimmick,” people should understand the complicated nature of human pregnancy and that attempts to replicate it could have long-term negative effects on mental and physical health.
However, Snopes claims that its attempts to confirm Zhang's identity have failed, so we will now have to wait and see if the news is genuine. According to Nanyang Technological University, no one with that name had ever studied there, and no pregnancy robot study had ever been done. Additionally, Zhang is not listed as an attendee at the World Robot Expo in Beijing, where the robot was allegedly announced. Snopes deemed this to be false news because of these elements, as well as the fact that every story exclusively used artificial intelligence (AI)-generated visuals to demonstrate the idea.