Facepalm: In what is yet more evidence that we shouldn't fear the prospect of a robot takeover, a humanoid machine running Qualcomm's hardware and boasting 700 TOPS of on-device AI processing collapsed like it had been shot during an on-stage tech demo. If that wasn't bad enough, it happened right next to a Qualcomm executive, who seemed almost to die from shock rather than embarrassment. The robot was then covered with what looked like a body bag and carried away in shame.
The incident occurred during Computex 2026, but it seems video of what happened has only recently surfaced online.
The 4NE1 Gen 3.5 robot is from Qualcomm hardware partner Neura Robotics. It's powered by Qualcomm's Dragonwing IQ10 robotics reference design (RRD) and offers 6 to 8 hours of runtime with hot-swappable batteries, along with a 100 kg (220 pounds) payload and a 5-foot-9-inch frame.
Robot powered by Qualcomm's new AI chip dies mid-presentation
by u/SuggestionMission516 in singularity
Like so many of these advanced humanoid robots we've seen in the past, this one walks onstage like it'd just vacated its bowels – were such a thing possible. It then patiently stands next to the exec as he shows off the Qualcomm Dragonwing IQ10 RRD.
But it appears that 4NE1 Gen 3.5 grew weary of the speech and appeared to drop dead on stage. It collapsed spectacularly, folding backwards on itself like a gymnast. Several people rushed up and covered its broken body before struggling to haul it away. As a final humiliation, the robot was dropped onto the floor before making it out the door.
In true corporate fashion, Qualcomm has put a positive spin on the catastrophe. It wrote that the robot had performed its "safe-collapse" sequence as designed, lowering itself to its knees to protect the environment around it. One imagines Qualcomm would have been praising the machine's data-securing self-destruction mechanism had it exploded on stage.
– Saint Javelin (@saintjavelin) November 12, 2025
In fairness to Qualcomm and Neura, this isn't the first time a robot has collapsed into a pile while being paraded around. The same thing happened to Russia's first autonomous robot, AIdol, back in November. The company's CEO later called it a "real-time training" session and a "successful mistake."
Qualcomm's humanoid robot demo went hilariously wrong when the machine just dropped dead on stage
