YouTuber gets Robot Clone to perform ad read in his stead


What would you do with a clone of yourself? (Safe for work, please.) In the case of educational YouTuber Tom Scott, the best use case for a robot clone is to do an ad read for a VPN sponsor. To be honest, it’s a pretty solid idea. 

Tom Scott’s Robot Clone

In Scott’s latest video, the YouTuber traveled to Cornwall, England to take a look at some robots. Created by Engineered Arts, Scott was invited to explore the Ameca and Mesmer technologies. 

We’ve reported on these types of robots before. Mesmer robots are fully covered in rather scary faux-skin. On the other hand, Ameca robots are fully plastic, but their extremely realistic facial expressions are still on the creepy side. 

When invited, Scott asked if Engineered Arts would be able to make him a robot double. However, the YouTuber notes that creating a double for one day of filming is “not cheap”. There is one way to recoup those costs, though: a VPN sponsor. 

Tom Scott explained that his video about the false advertising in VPN sponsors back in 2019 cut him off from VPN companies. However, now that advertising standards have changed, the YouTuber could make his robot double read the ad for him. 

It worked. At the end of Scott’s video, Robo-Tom reads out a sponsor reel for NordVPN. It’s pretty scary — the clunkier facial expressions combined with faux skin are very uncomfortable — but it’s still cool. Watch the video below: 

Read More: The wild connection between Star Trek and The Zodiac Killer

The Death of Robot Tom Scott 

After living its life as a mouthpiece for virtual private networks, Tom Scott’s robot clone was shut down. Due to the huge cost of Engineered Arts’ robots, the robot was decommissioned. 

In a comment underneath the video, Tom Scott explained: “Don’t worry, the robot double has been fully decommissioned. It is absolutely not writing this comment instead of Tom.”

The use for robot clone bodies is currently only for entertainment purposes. While big talkers like Elon Musk claim that people will one day be able to transfer their consciousness into devices like Tesla Bot, that’s not currently possible. (And likely won’t be for hundreds of years. Musk probably just watched Chappie before tweeting.) 

Robotics are evolving at a fascinating rate, and paired with AI they can be truly magnificent devices. On the other hand, do we really need to create a robot clone of people? No, but it is entertaining. 

For more articles like this, take a look at our News and Robotics page.