It's every AI brand's worst nightmare. You invite your brand new humanoid on stage to co-present a keynote about itself. The robot seems to be handling the pressure quite well – until it suddenly dies, collapsing to the ground in a crashing heap of plastic and metal.
That's exactly what happened at At Qualcomm’s Computex 2026 showcase. Shortly after walking onstage carrying the Dragonwing IQ10 AI chip that powers it, the company's robot collapsed noisily. Cue some of the most brilliantly slapstick tech conference footage I've had the pleasure of watching in recent years.
I'm not sure what my favourite part of the video is. Perhaps it's the robot's pitiful arm raise moments after hitting the ground, seemingly an attempt to say, 'I'm okay!' Perhaps its the fact that the speaker, clearly unprepared to improvise, continues with the presentation as though nothing has happened. Perhaps it's the backstage team's hilariously frantic attempts to preserve the robot's dignity by covering it with what appears to be a too-small satin sheet, before carrying it offstage (dropping it on the way, naturally). The whole thing feels like pure performance art.
Now, whenever anybody talks of how powerful AI is becoming, I'll picture the untimely demise of this poor, poor robot. Thank you, Qualcomm.
