‘My robot has run away’: robotic vacuum cleaner ‘disappears’ for a week, sending Chinese owner into a spin as social media laughs out loud
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It is well known that China is at the forefront of all things artificial intelligence (AI), but what happens when your robot goes AWOL?
That is exactly what happened earlier this month, and the mystery disappearance of a certain member of the Internet of Things has been pre-occupying mainland social media – specifically the Xiaohongshu platform – ever since.
On March 11, an internet user with an IP address in the Chinese capital Beijing posted that his robotic vacuum cleaner had been “lost for a week”.
The user, who is marked in his profile as a male, said that he had not been able to find the robot since it used its AI to ask him for “help” a week before the post.

The poster said he could find no sign of the robot under the bed, the sofa, behind the curtains, on the balcony or in the kitchen.