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Need A Useless Robot? Simone Giertz Is The Queen

Simone Giertz makes robots.

And while they're technically adept — they do work — they don't actually work very well.

Giertz has found fame online via her useless robots, including one that's been viewed more than a million times online.

But it's not just the fame she's going for. She tells NPR she wants other people to get into robotics.

"To me, the goal of building useless and ridiculous robots is more — I mean, in some way, it's like a personal goal because I think it's really fun, and I think having fun is super important to create things," she says.

That's evidenced by her accompanying "making of" videos to some of the machines (there's some salty language in this video).

And if you browse the comment sections of the Internet at all (or work on the Internet), you might be interested in her "Comment Assistant."

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Corrected: March 20, 2016 at 11:00 PM CDT
A previous Web version of this story incorrectly referred to Simone Giertz Yahtch. Her name is Simone Giertz.