Humanoid robot strolls NYC, tries on sneakers and freaks out New Yorkers

New York Post

15 hours ago

Famously unfazed New Yorkers were rattled by this robot.
The humanoid stunned passersby as it strutted through Midtown — grabbing hot dogs, trying on sneakers and racking up viral attention in a wild promo stunt.
The KOID-branded bot, priced around $100,000, was rolled out last week by global asset management firm KraneShares to promote its Global Humanoid and Embodied Intelligence Index ETF, which launched in June after the bot rang the Nasdaq opening bell.
5 Reactions ranged from excitement to fear as KOID rolled through Midtown — drawing stares, laughs and plenty of phone cameras.
Courtesy of Jon Demske
'I feel like I was witnessing firsthand . . . the first lightbulb or the first car,' said Joseph Dube, head of marketing at KraneShares. 'People were amazed. Some people were terrified. It was a major mixed bag of reactions.'
During the stunt, the bot marched down Fifth Avenue, posed for selfies and casually walked into a Hoka store — where stunned employees helped it try on sneakers.
The whole scene was orchestrated by content creator Ben Sweeney, who filmed for the @NewYorkers social media account while interviewing passersby. The clips exploded online, some racking up more than 100,000 likes.
5 The KOID robot rolled into a Hoka store on Fifth Ave like any other customer, where employees laced it up with sneakers as stunned shoppers looked on.
Courtesy of Jon Demske
'To mess with humanity . . . y'all gotta stop. Satan, I rebuke you to hell,' one man on the street shouted.
'How much am I getting paid, and how much is the robot getting paid?' another asked.
'It's going to happen,' a woman said when asked about a potential robot takeover.
5 Mid-mission, KOID paused for a New York rite of passage — a hot dog from a cart vendor — before continuing on his walk.
Courtesy of Jon Demske
Others were more optimistic.
One blind man called the tech 'wonderful,' noting it could help people who can't have guide dogs due to allergies or other limitations.
'I mean, I would love for it to clean my house,' another passerby said.
5 KOID rang the Nasdaq opening bell in June, part of a flashy rollout for KraneShares' AI and robotics ETF that had the machine next to execs in suits.
Courtesy of Jon Demske
Built by Chinese robotics firm Unitree and supplied by Long Island-based RoboStore, KOID runs on Stanford's OpenMind software.
It was remote-controlled during the walk but is fully programmable and already used in research labs and universities, Dube said.
Since launch, KraneShares says the ETF has drawn in $28 million.
5 Though lifelike in its movements, KOID wasn't thinking for itself. Engineers used Stanford's OpenMind software to steer it via remote during its Midtown strut.
Courtesy of Jon Demske
'At some point these robots will be so common that it's not going to have the wow factor that it currently has,' Dube said. 'We're definitely taking advantage of a moment in time.'
The Morgan Stanley Global Humanoid Model projects that there could be 1 billion humanoids and $5 trillion in annual revenue by 2050.