"Westworld' is closer than I thought."
A robotics company in China has shown off a humanoid robotic head that can express emotions through extremely subtle movements of its facial features.
A video that has gone viral on social media shows the face glancing around the room with a quizzical expression. Its eyes blink in an eerily lifelike way, selling the illusion surprisingly well.
Hangzhou, China-based outfit AheadForm, which is behind the impressive demo, claims on its website to combine "self-supervised AI algorithms" and wide-range "bionic actuation" to "express authentic emotions and lifelike facial expressions."
The demo goes to show how far human mimicry in the field of humanoid robotics has come, landing in the furthest reaches of the uncanny valley.
"Well... 'Westworld' is closer than I thought," one Reddit user pondered in response to the video, referring to the hit HBO sci-fi show — and 1973 movie, and Michael Crichton novel — about a fictional amusement park populated by android "hosts."
No uncanny valley,just ultra-humanlike robots that feel natural. Hangzhou-based AheafFrom isn’t just building emotional humanoid robots, but replicas of future humans. They collaborate with artists to craft beautiful appearances, powered by CharacterMind, a system that gives… pic.twitter.com/QzeR3VzsZC — CyberRobo (@CyberRobooo) September 17, 2025
AheadForm says it's already developed a series of "ultra-lifelike" humanoid "elves," which can "perceive the world, communicate, learn, and interact intelligently with its surroundings" thanks to an "advanced AI learning algorithm."
According to the company's founder, Hu Yuhang, the lines between human and robot are bound to continue to blur, eventually becoming barely distinguishable from each other.
"Within ten years, we might interact with robots and feel like they are almost human; maybe in 20 years, they could walk normally and perform some tasks just like a human," he told the South China Morning Post last year.
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