Arnold Schwarzenegger Sues Creator of Robot Lookalike

Despite a history of appearing as the titular cyborg in the Terminator franchise, Arnold [...]

By Spencer Perry

Despite a history of appearing as the titular cyborg in the Terminator franchise, Arnold Schwarzenegger isn't ready for the world to have access to robots that look like him. Gizmodo brings word of a new lawsuit stemming from the actor's Oak Productions, Inc. which has filed suit against Promobot, a company which has used Schwarzenegger's likeness in creating a new version of their "Android Robo-C" line, a product which appears to function like an Amazon Echo but with the added startling effect of facial expressions. Though the bot has no arms or legs with which to crawl forward and attempt to terminate, Schwarzenegger is still attempting to put a stop to it.

According to the lawsuit, Promobot created a version of their android assistant that is modeled after Schwarzenegger without the actor's approval or knowledge, and even did so after the Terminator star refused to be photographed with one of their products in late 2019. The version that looks like Schwarzenegger was put on display at the Consumer Electronics Show earlier this year, each unit comes with a price tag of $25,000.

Part of the lawsuit reads: "Defendants have made Schwarzenegger the unwilling face of Promobot and its Robo-C by making a model of the product bearing his likeness and imitating his voice to demonstrate the Robo-C at public events."

Despite being sent a cease and desist letter by Schwarzenegger's lawyers after CES, the lawsuit alleges that the same model was put on display at Toy Fair in February. The suit reveals that Schwarzenegger is seeking damages at a minimum of $10 million. You can watch a video of the version modeled after Schwarzenegger that was on display at CES below.

According to an official press release on the Robo-C models, the androids are "completely anthropomorphic" machines that are capable of copying human facial expressions including moving their eyes, eyebrows, lips and more, all while maintaining a conversation with the user. The machines have "over 600 facial expressions," are capable of remembering and recognizing faces, and are able to connect to external systems and services including home appliances. The official website even uses "Arnold Schwarzenegger" (sic) as an example of the type of assistant that could be created for interested buyers.

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