President Obama finds Japan's soccer-kicking robots 'a little scary'

YouTube/AP

President Obama finds Japan's soccer-kicking robots 'a little scary'
(Image credit: YouTube/AP)

President Barack Obama met a robot today in Japan and left confused and perhaps a bit intimidated. While visiting Japan's National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation, the president played soccer with a humanoid robot named Asimo.

At first, the president was cautious around the gizmo, and he even exchanged bows with it, but eventually he warmed up to him. "It's nice to meet you," the robot said, before approaching him with a soccer ball. "Okay, come on," the president replied. The robot lightly kicked the ball at the perplexed president. "I have to say that the robots were a little scary, they were too lifelike," the president told the Washington Post. "They were amazing." --Jordan Valinsky

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us

Jordan Valinsky is the lead writer for Speed Reads. Before joining The Week, he wrote for New York Observer's tech blog, Betabeat, and tracked the intersection between popular culture and the internet for The Daily Dot. He graduated with a degree in online journalism from Ohio University.