Influencer Frankie LaPenna entered a cage against a six-foot humanoid robot in a viral fight that ended with brutal kicks, a broken hand and millions of views.
Humanity finally got its robot-versus-man showdown, and our representative was internet creator Frankie LaPenna. On September 18, LaPenna stepped inside a cage in San Francisco opposite a full-size humanoid robot during a REK exhibition promoted as the first “Human VS Terminator robot fight.” For a few seconds, it almost looked manageable. Then the robot started kicking.
It Went About as Well as You'd Expect
Viral footage shows LaPenna moving forward aggressively, throwing punches and landing several shots on the machine. Unfortunately for him, hitting a metal humanoid is a very different proposition from hitting another person.
The EngineAI T800 soon fires back with a series of powerful kicks, knocking LaPenna backward and eventually sending him crashing to the floor. One sequence sees the influencer pushed toward the cage before another kick drops him again. LaPenna later showed off a badly swollen hand and said he had broken it during the fight.
The video took off almost immediately. By the time mainstream outlets began covering the stunt on September 21 and 22, reports put the clip at roughly 45 million views and 2.7 million likes. Apparently, watching a human voluntarily fistfight a robot still has some novelty left in it.
The Robot Wasn't Actually Fighting on Its Own
Despite all the inevitable Terminator comparisons, the robot was not autonomously deciding how to attack LaPenna. REK's combat system uses human pilots to control the machines, while software helps handle movement, balance and stability.
The hardware itself is intimidating enough. EngineAI lists the T800 at 173 centimeters tall and roughly 75 to 85 kilograms depending on configuration, with maximum joint torque of up to 450 N·m. The manufacturer even warns users to maintain a safe distance from the robot because of its high-powered actuators. Naturally, somebody decided the next logical step was putting one inside a cage.
Did the Robot Actually Win?
If you only saw the viral clip, it certainly looks that way. LaPenna gets knocked down while the machine remains upright, which gave the internet all the footage it needed to declare an early victory for the robots.
REK later said that LaPenna continued fighting and ultimately managed to defeat the machine by knocking it over. That part never spread quite as widely as the footage of him being kicked across the cage.
The stunt was less a glimpse of autonomous robots taking over and more a demonstration of how physically capable modern humanoids are becoming. A human was still controlling the T800. The kicks, however, were very real — and LaPenna's hand apparently has the X-ray to prove it.