Video Of The Week — Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos Pilots An Avatar-Style Robot

On Sunday, March 20, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, was observed behaving like a kid in a candy store — and for a good reason too. The beaming billionaire was among the first to be given the opportunity to pilot a 14-foot-tall mechanical robot, dubbed Method-2, at the opening of the Amazon-hosted MARS 2017 conference. Dedicated to Machine learning, home Automation, Robotics, and Space Exploration (hence the acronym MARS), the three-day invite-only event was attended by 130 guests from the business, entertainment, and robotics sectors.

Method-2 is the brainchild of South Korean company Hankook Mirae Technology. When images of the massive robot first emerged last December, many people dismissed it as a hoax. The billionaire’s demonstration certainly silenced the skeptics. Though the robot’s arm mobility is certainly impressive, Method-2 is not quite ready to take on the world, given that it needs supports to stand upright or move. These minor flaws did not appear to bother Bezos, who tweeted, “Why do I feel so much like Sigourney Weaver?” — a reference to a suit donned by the actress in James Cameron’s science fiction movie, Aliens. If you think Method-2 resembles a Transformer, you would not be wrong, given that one of its designers, Vitaly Bulgarov, was a concept artist for Transformers 4: Age of Extinction.

Resources: CNN.com,mashable.com,fortune.com.