A small humanoid robot has become a public spectacle in cities, fan festivals and social media feeds. The most visible examples have different names and personas, but many of them share the same foundation: the Unitree G1, a Chinese-made humanoid robot that is being turned into a new kind of influencer.
The story is not just about one viral machine. It shows how humanoid robots are moving from labs into crowds, where personality, software and spectacle matter as much as mechanical ability.
How Edward Warchocki turned a machine into a character
Edward Warchocki began as an experiment by Bartosz Idzik and Radosław Grzelaczyk. Six months ago, they decided to buy a humanoid robot from China and give it a local identity. The name came from Grzelaczyk’s dog Eddie, the Polish word for growling, “warczeć,” and the fact that it sounded like a believable Polish name.
At first, the robot did not speak. According to the source article, people reacted with fear when the 4-foot-tall humanoid appeared in public without a voice. That changed after Idzik, a software developer, connected Edward to a large language model so it could hold live conversations in Polish.
That voice altered the public response. Idzik described Edward as “Not super intelligent, but very emotional, very easy to make friends with.” He also summed up the shift more plainly: “When he started to talk, people loved him. Without talking, it’s just a 40-kilogram machine.”
Once Edward could interact, the robot became a recurring public presence. It visited the Polish parliament, talked with politicians, hiked in mountains, waded in a lake and was jokingly arrested by police. In April, a video of Edward chasing away wild boars in Warsaw while carrying a backpack and wearing a Rolex went viral worldwide. Edward now has over 1 million followers and 4 billion views across social media.
The same robot behind several viral personas
Edward Warchocki is not the only humanoid character attracting attention. The same source points to several other public-facing robots: “Rizzbot” in Austin, “Bart Robot” with Knicks fans in New York, and “Brickell Clanker” in Miami. Each has a different setting, costume and audience, but they are all based on the Unitree G1.
The G1’s appearance helps explain why it reads instantly as a robot rather than a person. It is about the size of a child, with light-gray aluminum limbs and a hollowed-out face marked by a ring of blue light. That design makes it recognizable on camera and easy to frame as a character.
The robot has appeared in a wide range of public clips and performances. The source article lists examples including America’s Got Talent, kung fu demonstrations, boxing matches, parkour, concerts, running with kids, attempted cooking, streaming with Kai Cenat, begging for money, dating itself, being ordained as a monk in Japan and Korea, and praying at a mosque in Dubai.
Those appearances point to why the Unitree G1 has become useful for social media. It does not need to perform a traditional job to hold attention. It needs to be recognizable, mobile enough for public scenes, and strange enough to make people stop, record and share.
A growing business, but not a simple purchase
Unitree is preparing to go public on the Chinese stock market in about two weeks, according to the article. Its financial disclosure shows that humanoid robots are already a major part of the company’s business. More than half of Unitree’s 2025 revenue came from delivering humanoid robots to real customers.
The company shipped 5,511 humanoids in 2025 at an average price of less than $25,000 each. It also reported that 43 percent of all sales came from outside China, and it became profitable for the first time last year.
For buyers in the US, the price can vary sharply depending on model and configuration. Unitree’s website lists a basic G1 robot at $13,500 before tariff, shipping and taxes. A US distributor lists it at about $19,000. Jake Cooperstein, a 24-year-old in Miami, chose the U5 variation instead because the most basic version lacks more sophisticated parts such as dextrous hands and is prohibited from modification. The U5 version costs $66,000.
Cooperstein named his robot “Brickell Clanker,” after the downtown Miami neighborhood, and began taking it out to interact with people. Its larger break came at World Cup games after-parties this summer, where it changed jerseys for Argentina, Brazil and the US. Cooperstein now makes money mainly by charging to bring Brickell Clanker to influencer parties, nightclubs and corporate events, with rates from $800 to $1,200 an hour depending on the task.
He has also bought another robot, the Unitree R1. The article describes the R1 as faster and lighter, with almost one-third the base price of the G1. Cooperstein named it the “Lil Clanker.”
The limits behind the spectacle
The viral appeal of these humanoid robots can make them appear more autonomous than they are. Idzik and Cooperstein both say they teleoperate the robots most of the time when bringing them into public. The reason is practical: they are concerned that a malfunction could hurt someone nearby and create a safety hazard.
The G1 can theoretically move through a physical environment by itself, but public spaces are difficult. Crowds, surprise interactions and uneven conditions raise the stakes. For now, the most successful social media deployments appear to combine robot hardware with human control and software-driven conversation.
Movement is also limited by what the robot can already do and what owners know how to program. Cooperstein’s G1 came with about 20 gestures and 15 dance moves. Adding new movements requires technical skill. He programmed Brickell Clanker to move its arms in a way that simulates the “Viking Row” gesture used by Norwegian soccer fans this year.
These limits matter because they separate influence from utility. The Unitree G1 can draw crowds, create viral clips and anchor paid appearances. The harder question is whether it can reliably perform conventional work, such as cleaning a house or operating on an assembly line.
What comes next for robot influencers
The path ahead may differ by market. In Europe, Edward Warchocki faces fewer threats, according to the article. Idzik says MERA Robotics, the company he cofounded with Grzelaczyk, now has a fleet of 20 humanoid robots, most of them Unitree G1. In Poland, each robot shares Edward’s personality, while other robots in the Middle East and Southeast Asia operate as separate influencers.
In the US, availability is less certain. In July, the US Federal Communications Commission announced a ban on new Chinese-made humanoid robots. Models that already cleared approvals, including the Unitree G1 and R1, are theoretically still allowed, but the article says no one knows for sure. What is clear from the source is that Unitree’s next generation of humanoid robots will not be sellable in the US.
For now, the Unitree G1 has found a role that fits its strengths. It is not yet presented as a dependable everyday worker. It is a public character, event attraction and social media engine, powered by hardware from China, human operators nearby and personalities designed for crowds.