We can think of no possible way that a newly invented invisible drone can be used nefariously.

Rather than relying on camouflage, the flying gizmo created by researchers at Northwestern University exploits the motion blur effect in our fallible human vision to almost disappear by spinning at an absurd 25 times per second.

This is too quick for us and many animals to see clearly, becoming a gossamer smear that blends into the background, like the way the blades of a helicopter do, only more extreme. 

One day, this type of design could be used for completely peaceful pursuits, the researchers say — like observing wildlife, of course.

“Most efforts to hide drones focus on making them look like their surroundings,” Michael Rubenstein, an associate professor of computer science and mechanical engineering at Northwestern who led the research, said in a statement about the work.

“Instead, we asked whether we could design the drone itself around the way humans perceive motion,” he added. “This idea of low visibility through persistent motion is something few people have explored.”

To create the drone, dubbed “Phantom Twist,” the team used a computational model to churn out around 20,000 different drone designs, then used AI and optimization algorithms to repeatedly rearrange how its major parts, like their motor and propeller, were configured. 

Then they took the best configurations and used a model that simulates human perception to quantify how visible each design appeared. The least visible designs were chosen to be further rearranged with the optimization algorithm, until landing on the blurriest candidate of them all. 

“The design process was fully automated,” Rubenstein said. “Then, when we were confident that a drone met all our criteria, we built it.”

Their research, detailed in a paper awaiting peer review, was presented at the Robotics: Science and Systems 2026 conference in Sydney this month.

It’s not the first spinning drone, but it is the first that’s been optimized to be effectively invisible to the human eye. Its major components are carefully spaced enough from each other to never become a distinct shape when viewed from any angle while spinning — all while being capable of stable flight.

According to the researcher’s visibility model, this allows the Phantom Twist to be about ten times less visually perceptible than a conventional quadcopter drone. Impressive footage certainly bears this out: after the drone gets up to full speed, it almost looks like the ghost of a tiny UFO.

The drone is quite noisy, however. If something like it is going to be used to observe wildlife one day, it’ll have to be vastly quieter. Until then, if these faint apparitions are ever turned on humans, at least we’ll be able to hear them coming.

More on robots: Autonomous Robots Confirmed to Have Killed Human Soldiers

The post We’re Admittedly Terrified That They’ve Now Invented Invisible Drones appeared first on Futurism.

From the factories of Detroit to the postal warehouses in Shenzhen, a new kind of worker is clocking in — and the humans it’s replacing aren’t going down without a fight.

In late June, thousands of rank-and-file workers in the Korean Metal Workers’ Union voted to authorize a strike in response to Hyundai’s announcement it would deploy over 25,000 humanoid robots across its factories.

Weeks later, that strike is slowing production at a Hyundai factory down to a trickle. According to the Wall Street Journal, the workers began a partial strike after negotiations broke down last week. Starting on Monday, workers refused to work for four hours of each shift, leaving production lines stalled for half the work day.

Per the WSJ, the economic impacts of the strike are stark: the pullback could disrupt production of about 5,000 cars, and cut into Hyundai’s sales revenue by around $135 million. Should Hyundai choose to dig in their heels after the labor action, the union said it could escalate the strike, either by prolonging the length of the strike, upgrading it to a full strike, or both.

The mobilization appears to be the first of its kind over humanoid robotics, specifically, marking a pivotal moment in labor history. At issue is Hyundai’s threat to deploy thousands of “Atlas” model robots built by Boston Dynamics, bipedal humanoids that measure about 6’2″ in height and can lift a maximum of 110 pounds.

While the robots have yet to be deployed, union organizers explained that the strike is meant to give workers the power to renegotiate their contracts on their own terms, before the automation drive begins in earnest.

“We have to prepare to ensure there are safeguards in place,” secretary general of the KMWU and lead negotiator Byun Jun-hwan told the WSJ.

Specifically, the union’s demands include job security guarantees designed around AI and automation, larger bonuses that reflect Hyundai’s profit margin, a transition away from hourly wages to a fixed salary agreement, and a formal agreement allowing workers final say on any humanoid robotics deployment.

More on automation: AI Is Pushing Older Employees Straight Out of the Workforce, New Report Finds

The post Striking Workers Bring Car Factory to a Screeching Halt Over Humanoid Robots appeared first on Futurism.

You might wince at the professional spectacle of two humans beating each other to a pulp. But when it’s two robots? We want maximum carnage.

Thankfully, the inaugural Ultimate Robot Knock-out Legend (URKL) competition in Shenzhen, China, has delivered on providing the most brutal-but-bloodless spectacle you can lay eyes on.

In a video of a cage match between two mechanical humanoids, one of the clanker combatants literally knocks its opponent’s block off by delivering a flying kick to the face.

The robot continues to fight with its head dangling from between its shoulders and throws a few punches, but not for long.

After being knocked to the ground again, it flails uncontrollably while trying to get to its feet. The violent jerking severs the cable connecting the hanging head, and the robot collapses onto the ground. The other robot, victorious, dances over its unmoving body.

Insane new humanoid battle tournament in Shenzhen
byu/Fit-Case1093 insingularity

According to the state-run tabloid Global Times, the URKL competition featured 32 teams from around the world who all used the T800 humanoid robot from EngineAI, a Chinese robotics company.

The point of the competition, according to EngineAI CEO Zhao Tongyang, was twofold: create a global commercial robot fighting brand and promote research and industrialization.

“Let the event feed back into technology, and let technology drive the industry,” Tongyang told Global Times.

You can’t accuse Tongyang of not putting his money where his mouth is. In a video that went viral last December, he donned a suit of armor and let himself take blows from one of his T800 robots. One kick was so powerful that it slammed him to the ground.

It’s hard to tell how much of a splash the event made in the country, but it must’ve been a wild spectacle to witness in person. Legendary martial arts movie star and filmmaker Donnie Yen was in attendance and sounded blown away by what he saw.

“Honestly, I used to see robot fighting only in science fiction movies,” Yen said at the event’s opening, per Global Times. “But today, for the first time, I got to watch real robots fighting up close.”

“The weight of the machines, the precision of their movements — it was incredible,” he added.

Martial arts is one of Chinese robot companies’ favorite ways to show off their capabilities. China stunned the world earlier this year with a televised martial arts display performed by a group of Unitree G1 robots that shared the stage with human actors.

More on robots: Startup Upset After Journalist Points Out How Creepy Its Humanoid Robots’ Hands Are

The post Brutal Humanoid Robot Cage Match Stops Abruptly When One of the Robot’s Heads Pops Off appeared first on Futurism.

The VP of a humanoid robotics company was in for a surprise after finding that a Wired article pointed out something extremely unsettling about the company’s robot fingers.

Last week, Wired published a piece on Norwegian-American startup 1X and its Neo humanoid robot with an otherwise uncontroversial thesis: Though the marketing around Neo is decidedly carnal, its hands are impressive, matching and in some ways exceeding the dexterity of a human’s.

During the latter half of the article, Wired‘s Boone Ashworth noted a distinctly sensual pattern emerging in the company’s marketing materials: “smooth jazz plays in the background of a soft, warmly lit video. The robo digits curl around a wine glass, turn off a light, unzip a jacket, and gently fondle some grapes.”

“Not to kink shame, but this is a strange strategy for selling a robot that can also become a portal for human operators to peer into and interact with the things in your home,” Ashworth wrote, referring to the fact that the Neo will have remote human operators to start.

As reviews go, it’s far from the harshest critique of a robot ever written — and we should know — but 1X vice president of product and design Dar Sleeper still took Ashworth’s comments personally. Responding to the piece on X-formerly-Twitter, Sleeper lashed out at the author, using him as an example to lecture other tech journalists on what not to do.

“I gave Wired the exclusive on our hands launch, and they wrote a really weird article about how we are sexualizing robotics,” Sleeper wrote, displaying a remarkable amount of entitlement right out of the gate. “I felt pretty betrayed because that’s not what they told me they were writing about not is that what I’ve ever been about… but I’ve come to find a lot of dishonesty and malice in the journalism community so I wasn’t surprised.”

Continuing, Sleeper says he sent the following email to the Wired writer: “It was nice talking to you, but I wanted to let you know that I didn’t enjoy your article at all.”

I would like to note that I believe both Financial Times, Forbes & Bloomberg to be incredible institutions. You guys are killing it and I respect your ability to always innovate when things are changing.

— dar (@radbackwards) July 11, 2026

“I understand the need to be inflammatory because that seems to be the only thing that gets clicks these days but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t recognize when something special is in front of you,” Sleeper carried on. “I trusted our PR team in saying we should offer you the exclusive on what is one of the most important technological developments in the history of Mankind and I deeply regret it.”

“Good luck with the rest of your writing career,” he added.

Clearly, 1X had something very different in mind with being featured in Wired, a highly reputable tech publication with decades of history. Sleeper’s comments highlight how the company was hoping to control the narrative.

If anything, the executive’s protest suggests that the “sexualization” of humanoid robots is an ongoing source of frustration for the company.

“This post makes it sound like the entire article is about the robot trying to make love to you,” tech journalist Joshua Topolsky tweeted, referring to Sleeper’s comments. “In fact, it’s roughly two paragraphs commenting on the marketing of the robot and the privacy issues of the Neo’s human control mode, where a person is remotely operating the bot, potentially inside your house and potentially in very private moments.”

“I appreciate that the founder embraces journalism and expected a certain framing, but this post kind of exaggerates a rather positive and mild take on his product into something it’s not,” Topolsky added. “If you want journalists to engage with your work, you must expect them to see things you might have missed. This seems to be one of those cases.”

More on robotics: Korean Workers Vote to Go On Strike, Fearing Robots Could Replace Them

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