Pregnant Robot: A $100,000 Hoax

Recently, a piece of news that "the world's first pregnancy robot is expected to be launched within a year" has sparked discussions online, pushing the concept of artificial womb, which is still in the research laboratory, directly to the center of public opinion. Even the elderly in family groups who have a vague understanding of modern technology have started forwarding and discussing it: "Women are liberated, and robots can give birth to babies."

It is reported that this pregnancy robot is developed by Shenzhen Kaiyiva Robot Company. Its core lies in integrating the incubation box technology into the robot's "abdomen" and trying to simulate the entire process of human pregnancy. From the stable implantation of the embryo, gradual development to the final delivery, it will all be done by the robot, and the expected price is no more than 100,000 yuan.

However, as the incident continued to ferment, public opinion began to polarize. Many professionals stood up and said bluntly that it is almost impossible to achieve robot pregnancy with the current technological level.

Some people also said that resisting technological progress is just an attempt to continue to "exploit" women.

Which of these statements is true and which is false? How far are we from artificial wombs and robot conception?

The Truth Behind Robot "Pregnancy"

In the public's imagination, an artificial womb is like a magical artificial incubator. Starting from a tiny fertilized egg, it can replace the female uterus throughout the process and give birth to a healthy baby. Many people think that this is simply a sharp weapon to liberate women.

This expectation has laid the groundwork for the popularity of pregnancy robots.

The media's publicity is very eye - catching, saying that the founder, Zhang Qifeng, is a doctor from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, and the company will mass - produce 100,000 - yuan pregnancy robots next year.

However, this resume does not stand up to close scrutiny.

After in - depth investigation of the background of Kaiyiva Company, it is found that the main business of Kaiyiva Company, which is operated by Zhang Qifeng, has long been focused on hotel food - delivery and greeting robots. It has zero patents in cutting - edge fields such as artificial wombs and bioengineering. Subsequent revelations pointed out that the so - called participation of the company in robot manufacturing actually only limited to the contract manufacturing of the shells of simulated humanoid robots. In other words, they only make a "shell", which is far from the real "pregnancy robot" with biological incubation functions.

Although it has been refuted many times, the public opinion storm has not completely subsided. The topic of "artificial womb" has been pushed into the spotlight, hitting the public's nerve and triggering social discussions far beyond the event itself.

The artificial womb technology symbolizes the ultimate fantasy of reproductive autonomy, hitting the common anxieties of women about reproductive burden, career interruption, and physical damage. The advent of pregnancy robots means the possibility of physical autonomy and workplace equality, providing an emotional fuse for the popularity of public opinion.

The traffic logic driven by algorithms has accelerated the fermentation and spread of the event. Tracing the source of the information, we found that the information about the pregnancy robot came from the discussion between Zhang Qifeng and a science and technology self - media blogger. In the interview, he mentioned that there were foreign teams conducting relevant explorations, and his company was only involved in the R & D of the shells of simulated humanoid robots. However, in the process of dissemination, it was misinterpreted that Kaiyiva Company itself would launch a robot with complete incubation functions.

The pregnancy robot has elements that can detonate traffic, such as sex, life, and fear of technology. Through out - of - context quoting, stripping the context, and exaggeration, public opinion has successfully created a science - fiction horror story that can grab huge traffic, but in the process, it sacrifices the pursuit of truth and logic, making rational communication extremely difficult.

With the fueling of marketing accounts, public discussions quickly got out of order. What should have been a fact - based discussion was almost instantly submerged by more emotional and position - based ethical debates and gender opposition. The topic quickly shifted to sensitive topics such as "female liberation", "technological objectification", and "ethical disputes".

It can be said that the "pregnancy robot" storm is a typical post - truth era event. In the public opinion field driven by the traffic economy, capital pursues attention, the media needs blockbusters, and the public looks for an emotional outlet. A tiny fallacy can ignite the collective anxiety accumulated in the whole society.

So, technically speaking, how far are we from a real artificial womb?

The Distance Between Us and Artificial Wombs

Different from the public's beautiful imagination, there is still a long way to go to build a real pregnancy robot.

In 1923, physiologist Haldane first proposed the concept of "artificial womb"; in 2017, a team from Children's Hospital of Philadelphia in the United States put fetal sheep into a "biological bag" simulating the uterine environment, and the fetal sheep survived successfully for 4 weeks. In 2021, the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel successfully cultivated hundreds of baby mice using an "artificial womb", achieving the full - cycle in - vitro cultivation of mammals for the first time; in China, the "animal experiment of an ECMO - free artificial womb" at the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University enabled fetal sheep to survive for 90 minutes.

Overall, at present, artificial womb technology still focuses on supporting the short - term development of embryos with formed organs. There are still many technical problems to be solved before achieving full - cycle in - vitro cultivation starting from a fertilized egg.

Why is it so difficult to realize an artificial womb?

Because the human uterine environment is not static. During the entire pregnancy process, the nutrients, hormone levels, blood flow, and pressure provided by the mother to the fetus are all finely and dynamically adjusted to meet the specific needs of different fetal development stages. If an artificial system wants to simulate this process, it needs to have the ability to monitor the fetal state in real - time and automatically feedback and adjust, which involves extremely complex sensor technology and control systems and is still difficult to achieve at present.

In addition to the maternal environment, the transmission of fetal nutrients is inseparable from an important female organ - the placenta.

This piece of flesh weighing about 500 grams not only needs to complete the exchange of oxygen and nutrients but also secrete hormones to regulate the mother's immune system to prevent the fetus from being rejected as a foreign body.

The function of the placenta is highly selective and active: it can actively "pump" specific nutrients such as amino acids, glucose, and minerals in the mother's blood to the fetus, block harmful substances such as toxins and pathogens, and at the same time allow antibodies such as IgG to pass through to provide crucial immune protection for the baby. These continuous biochemical signals involve complex endocrine regulation and molecular recognition mechanisms, which cannot be simply simulated by an artificial system composed purely of mechanical pumps and chemical materials.

Some people also point out that since it is so difficult to create an artificial placenta, can the placenta and the fetus be taken out together and cultivated in vitro?

This is actually a pipe dream. Because once the placental tissue leaves the mother, the micro - blood vessels inside will start to form blood clots within ten to twenty minutes, leading to tissue necrosis. Even if it is barely maintained through artificial perfusion, the current technology can hardly keep the function of the isolated placenta stable for more than 48 hours. Even if it successfully leaves the mother, any in - vitro circulation system creates a potential infection channel, and it is difficult to ensure the absolute aseptic state required for the baby's development.

It can be said that there has still been no breakthrough in artificial womb technology. Experts believe that it will take at least about ten years for the relevant technology to mature.

After reading this, we find that not only is the pregnancy robot itself a gimmick, but the artificial womb is also a far - from - mature technology. However, it is easy to expose a fraud for a while, but it is difficult to maintain rational analysis in the long run.

For ordinary people lacking professional scientific literacy, how should they distinguish the true from the false when facing such sensational science and technology scams again?

Stay Rational in the Public Opinion Whirlpool

Going back to the original question, we will find that it is not accidental that this controversy can detonate public opinion.

In the technology circle, it is not uncommon for people to believe and spread remarks due to a lack of understanding of technology.

Elizabeth Holmes, a young female entrepreneur, claimed that the Edison instrument invented by her company, Theranos, could complete professional cancer screening with just a few drops of blood from the fingertip. At its peak, the company was valued at $9 billion, but later it was exposed and the company was dissolved; in 2021, the metaverse hit the pain point of difficult social interaction during the epidemic. Meta weaved a grand vision with the virtual world as a gimmick, but it quickly cooled down due to the difficulty of technological breakthroughs.

These examples and the public opinion upsurge of "pregnancy robots" have a common pattern:

They all promise to solve a long - standing pain point with a disruptive solution; they are all endorsed by well - known people and large companies, and hyped up by the media; the public has a lack of basic understanding of the relevant technology; the excitement, longing, or anxiety brought by the story itself surpasses fact - based rational discussions and becomes the main driving force for dissemination.

In the future, when facing similar controversies over science and technology issues, we'd better stay rational:

Step one, filter information first and filter out clickbait and pseudo - science popularization.

When facing a science and technology news, first look at its source: Is it from an authoritative scientific research institution (such as the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the US FDA), a regular media (such as Xinhua News Agency, the journal "Nature"), an expert in the field (whose title and research direction need to be verified), or an anonymous self - media, a marketing account, or a little - known insider's revelation?

Take the pregnancy robot as an example. The initial news that it would be launched within a year came from the clips of non - professional self - media and did not mention the core technical background of the R & D team; the key information for subsequent refutation came from the industrial and commercial information inquiry on the national official website. By comparing the two, the credibility of the information sources is clear at a glance.

Step two, ask about the technological stage and distinguish between experiments and real - life applications.

The root cause of many science and technology controversies is to directly equate laboratory results with products that are about to be launched. For example, with the artificial womb, the biological bag of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia in the United States can keep premature lambs alive for 4 weeks, and the Israeli team can cultivate mice. However, these are all in the animal experiment stage and only aim at assisting the development of premature infants. It is still a long way from a real artificial womb. Only by piecing together the timeline information can we avoid being misled by experimental breakthroughs into thinking that it is a complete success.

Step three, change perspectives and jump out of the black - and - white emotional cognitive trap.

Controversies related to science and technology are most likely to fall into the binary opposition of the all - powerful theory and the panic theory. Take the pregnancy robot as an example. Supporters think that "it can solve infertility and workplace discrimination, so it must be vigorously developed", while opponents believe that "it will destroy the mother - child relationship and cause ethical disasters, so it must be completely banned". However, the actual development of science and technology is not a multiple - choice question of "either all good or all bad", but a need to find a balance in multiple dimensions. If we want science and technology to truly serve society, we need to jump out of emotional positions and learn to disassemble problems from multiple angles.

In addition, we should respect cognitive differences and not regard our own positions as the only correct ones. Behind the differences are different life experiences, professional backgrounds, and value orientations, and there is no absolute right or wrong. Only rational discussions can keep us sober in the public opinion whirlpool, neither blindly chasing science and technology myths nor easily falling into panic, and truly let science and technology return to its real value.

This article is from the WeChat public account "Brain Pole Body" (ID: unity007), author: Shanhu. It is published by 36Kr with authorization.