Robot dogs with loudspeakers are barking COVID safety instructions in China - but not everyone finds these dogs cute and cuddly.
Videos from the city of Shanghai, show robotic dogs telling residents to take their temperatures, disinfect often, avoid social gatherings, ventilate, wear a mask and wash hands to carry to help limit COVID-19's spread.
It comes as case numbers in China, which has a no COVID policy, are rising, plunging the country into lockdown.
According to the Daily Mail, the 'robodogs' are having their desired effect on locals, as locals feel they can't disobey the dogs' orders.
However, many people on Twitter find the robotic dogs creepy and something out of a nightmare.
"I mean yay, helpful robo dog… But for real, I hate these things. I hate how they look, I hate how they move. They freak me the hell out," one person wrote on Twitter.
"Now imagine that instead of COVID warnings the nightmare robo dog with a loudspeaker was dropping some sick beats."
"I can't wait to find out which post-apocalyptic dystopian nightmare 2022 has to offer us. Pretty sure this is a hint of what's to come…" a third wrote.
This is not the first time robots have been used to help during the pandemic. In 2021, Singapore trialed autonomous robots to detect bad behaviour such as flouting of COVID-19 safety measures.
