Arnold Schwarzenegger sues Russian company over robot lookalike
Hasta la vista, robot Arnie...
Arnold Schwarzenegger is reportedly suing robotics manufacturer Pomobot for upwards of $10 million (around £7.5m) after it used his image in one of its products.
The Russian company had debuted its creepy Arnie lookalike model at CES 2020 back in January. Co-founder Oleg Kivokurtsev even went as far as to tell Input that the company had, in fact, obtained permission from the actor-politician to use his image.
The robot, an Android Robo-C model, can actually be customised to take whatever appearance a customer wants and comes in at $25,000 (around £19k). Here's some footage from the tech event that will haunt your nightmares:
It looks like Kivokurtsev may have had his wires crossed, as the Terminator star's lawyer issued a cease-and-desist shortly after the CES event, according to Vice.
Despite the move, Promobot continued using the robot to promote its products in February, bringing on the suit which, according to TMZ, states that "such activity diminishes his hard-earned and well-deserved reputation as a major motion picture star".
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Promobot is well-known for its notorious publicity stunts, including one involving one of its robots and a Tesla car in self-driving mode.
Does this mean robot Arnie could still be back? It's definitely a possibility, despite the legal implications – and the nightmares, of course.
