Combination of Incubator and Robot
"Robot Mother to Handle the Entire Childbirth Process"
Price Expected to Be Under 20 Million Won
A futuristic female humanoid robot showing the growth of a baby. Image generated using OpenAI's Sora.
A Chinese robotics company has announced plans to unveil the world's first 'surrogate pregnancy robot' within a year.
According to Chinese media outlets such as Xinjingbao on August 11, Zhang Qifeng, founder and CEO of Shenzhen Longgang Chuangbankaiwa Robot and a Ph.D. from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, revealed this plan in an interview with local media.
He explained that, unlike traditional in vitro fertilization or surrogate pregnancy, this robot would allow a 'robot mother' to replicate the entire human experience of pregnancy and childbirth. He emphasized that it goes beyond simply mimicking the uterine environment, as the baby would grow inside a device embedded in a humanoid robot body similar to that of a human.
Chinese media reported that the technology described by Zhang Qifeng combines an incubator with the robot's abdomen. A prototype is expected to be released within a year, and the price is expected to be set at under 100,000 yuan (approximately 19.35 million won).
Local netizens showed sharply divided reactions. On social media platforms such as Weibo (the Chinese equivalent of X), many users expressed a desire to purchase the robot, with some saying they would welcome it even at a higher price.
On the other hand, there was also widespread agreement with concerns that, while a successful pregnancy robot would represent a revolutionary advance in life sciences and offer a new path to parenthood for certain groups who struggle to have children, its disruptive nature would bring unprecedented ethical, legal, and social challenges.
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