Promobotis is a Russian robotic company that is offering $200,000 to people in return for the right to use their face and voice on its robots forever.
The company is currently developing “a humanoid robot assistant which will work in hotels, shopping malls and other crowded places,” and is in the market for a “kind and friendly” face to use on it. The company will accept people of all races and genders. There is one requirement of ‘age 25 and over’ only.
“Our company is developing technologies in the field of facial recognition, as well speech, autonomous navigation, artificial intelligence, and other areas of robotics,” a recent Promobot press release reads. “Since 2019, we have been actively manufacturing and supplying humanoid robots to the market. Our new clients want to launch a large-scale project, and as for this, they need to license a new robot appearance to avoid legal delays.”
Earlier, the company was sued by Arnold Schwarznegger for $10,000,000 for using his appearance on robots without asking for permission. This is why they are being cautious and direct from the beginning.
Once the applicant is chosen, they will need a 3D modeling of the face so it can be used for the robot’s external features. Also, the company will have rights to the person’s voice, so the winner will also have to “dictate at least 100 hours of speech material” to create the robot’s voice.
Licensing your face and voice to a robotics company “for an unlimited period” is a scary proposition for many people, but the amount is attractive enough for people in need of the sum to sign the contract in a blink. Promobot has stopped taking applications since Monday as the response was overwhelming.
“Today we have received over 20,000 applications and our client has decided to suspend the request collection. We want to say thanks to all participants,” the Russian company explained on its website.