Technology

Creepy robot mom that gives birth is training future midwives

Published

1 day ago

March 22, 2026

Creepy robot mom that gives birth is training future midwives

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Most hospital training labs use basic dummies or simple mannequins to teach medical skills. Students practice procedures, learn techniques and move on to real patients later. But a new childbirth simulator called Mama Anne takes training to a very different level. This lifelike robot blinks, breathes and even talks while helping midwifery students practice delivering babies before they ever step into a real delivery room. And if the idea of a robot going into labor feels a little creepy, you are not alone.

At York St. John University in York, England, educators have introduced the simulator as part of a new approach to hands-on medical training. The technology allows students to experience complex labor scenarios in a safe environment where mistakes become learning moments instead of medical emergencies. And yes, the robot actually gives birth.

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Mama Anne is a high-fidelity childbirth simulator used to train midwifery students in realistic labor and delivery scenarios before they work with real patients. (Laerdal Medical)

How the robot childbirth simulator trains future midwives

The simulator known as Mama Anne looks and behaves much like a real patient in labor. Developed by Laerdal Medical, the high-fidelity mannequin was designed to recreate real childbirth conditions with startling realism.

Students interact with Mama Anne as if she were an actual patient. Her eyes blink and react to light. Her chest rises and falls as she breathes. She even has pulses that can be felt in multiple places across the body. Most importantly, she can deliver a baby mannequin during a simulated birth.

Unlike older training models that stayed mostly static, this simulator moves and reacts during labor. It can deliver in several positions, including lying back or on all fours. It can also display vital signs that change in response to medical complications. In short, it turns a classroom exercise into something that feels much closer to a real hospital scenario.

Why robot childbirth simulators are becoming essential

For decades, midwifery training relied heavily on textbooks, observation and limited hands-on practice. That approach left a major gap. Many students encountered their first true emergencies only after they began working in clinical settings.

Now technology is filling that gap. Simulation tools like Mama Anne allow students to practice high-risk situations repeatedly before they ever treat a real patient. As a result, students build confidence while instructors guide them through difficult scenarios.

For example, the simulator can recreate several dangerous childbirth complications, including:

Postpartum hemorrhage with realistic blood loss
Shoulder dystocia when a baby becomes stuck during delivery
Pre-eclampsia and eclampsia with changing vital signs
Sepsis symptoms that require rapid treatment

Students also practice everyday clinical skills such as monitoring fetal heart rate, giving injections and managing labor from start to finish. Because the training environment is controlled, instructors can pause a scenario, explain a mistake and run it again.

The robot even teaches communication skills

Medical training is not only about technical procedures. Communication with patients matters just as much. Mama Anne helps with that, too.

The simulator can speak using recorded responses or real-time dialogue through hidden speakers. Students must explain procedures, ask for consent and reassure their patient just as they would in a real delivery room.

If someone touches the simulator without asking first, it can react and vocalize discomfort. That feature reinforces one of the most important lessons in modern healthcare: patient consent and respectful care always come first.

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The lifelike simulator can blink, breathe, display vital signs and deliver a baby mannequin to recreate complex childbirth situations. (Laerdal Medical)

Why universities are investing in this technology

Educators believe simulation training dramatically improves how healthcare students prepare for the real world. Rebecca Beggan, midwifery program lead at York St. John University, says hands-on simulation helps students build both competence and confidence before clinical placements.

Students can experience an entire labor scenario from beginning to end. They learn antenatal care, labor management and postnatal care in a single immersive exercise. Instructors also say the technology helps protect students from the emotional shock of encountering their first medical emergency without preparation. Instead of facing those situations cold, students enter clinical placements with real practice under their belt.

The future of childbirth training

The arrival of hyper-realistic simulators like Mama Anne suggests medical education is entering a new era. Instead of learning mostly through observation and experience, future healthcare professionals may train through realistic simulations that mirror real hospital conditions.

That shift could change everything from how nurses train to how surgeons rehearse complex procedures. Technology will never replace human caregivers. However, it can help prepare them better than ever before.

What this means to you

Even if you never step into a medical classroom, this technology could still affect your life. Better training often leads to better patient outcomes. When healthcare providers practice emergency scenarios in advance, they react faster and make fewer mistakes during real emergencies.

For expectant parents, that can mean safer deliveries and more confident medical teams in the room. Simulation training also reflects a broader shift in healthcare education across the United States. Many hospitals and universities are adopting high-fidelity simulators for surgery, emergency care and trauma response. The goal is simple: Let students practice difficult situations before lives are on the line.

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Kurt’s key takeaways

A robot that gives birth may seem a little creepy at first. Still, tools like this could become common in medical training down the road. Students gain hands-on experience. Instructors guide them through emergencies. Patients benefit from better-prepared medical teams. The next generation of midwives may enter the delivery room with far more practice than any class before them. As medical simulators grow more realistic and more widespread, one question naturally follows.

Students use the simulator to practice emergencies like postpartum hemorrhage, shoulder dystocia and other complications in a safe training environment. (Laerdal Medical)

If robots can train doctors to deliver babies today, what other parts of healthcare might soon be practiced first in simulation labs instead of hospitals? Let us know by writing to us at Cyberguy.com.

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Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson is an award-winning tech journalist who has a deep love of technology, gear and gadgets that make life better with his contributions for Fox News & FOX Business beginning mornings on “FOX & Friends.” Got a tech question? Get Kurt’s free CyberGuy Newsletter, share your voice, a story idea or comment at CyberGuy.com.

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Technology

AI influencer awards season is upon us

Published

26 minutes ago

March 23, 2026

Press Room

First came the AI beauty pageant. Then the AI music contests. Now, there is an award for AI Personality of the Year — perhaps the inevitable next step for the AI influencer economy as it transforms from quirky novelty into a serious and lucrative industry.

The contest, a joint venture between generative AI studio OpenArt and AI-powered creator platform Fanvue, with backing from AI voice company ElevenLabs, opens on Monday and runs for a month. The organizers said it is intended to “celebrate the creative talent ‘behind’ AI Influencers” and recognize their growing commercial and cultural clout.

Contestants will compete for a total prize fund of $20,000, which will be split between an overall winner and individual categories of fitness, lifestyle, comedian, music and dance entertainer, and fictional cartoon, anime, or fantasy personality. Victors will be celebrated at an event in May that the organizers are dubbing the “‘Oscars’ for AI personalities.”

To enter, you must develop your AI influencer on OpenArt’s platform and submit it at www.AIpersonality.ai. You’ll be asked for social media handles across TikTok, X, YouTube, and Instagram, as well as the story behind the character, your motivations for creating it, and details of any brand work.

Among those assessing contestants are 13‑time Emmy‑winning comedy writer Gil Rief, the creators of Spanish AI model Aitana Lopez, and Christopher “Topher” Townsend, the MAGA rapper behind AI-generated gospel singer Solomon Ray. According to a copy of the judges’ briefing seen by The Verge, contestants will be scored on four criteria: quality, social clout, brand appeal, and the inspiration behind the avatar. Specific points include reliably engaging with followers, portraying a consistent look across social channels, accurate details like having the “right number of fingers and thumbs,” and having “an authentic narrative” behind the avatar.

The contest is open to established creators and novices alike, though existing AI influencers will still need to submit material produced on OpenArt’s platform, Matt Jones, head of brand at Fanvue, told The Verge.

Despite being designed to celebrate creators of virtual influencers, Jones said that entrants don’t need to publicly identify themselves. “If a person who created this amazing piece of work wants nothing to do with the press or to expose themselves or to have their name out there, that’s obviously fine,” he said. “There would be no need to thrust anybody into the limelight here. We would just celebrate the piece of work.”

That creators can remain anonymous feels odd for a contest judging authenticity, particularly in an AI influencer ecosystem built on fictional people, fake personas, and fabricated backstories. That same anonymity has also helped grifts flourish with little accountability, from the AI white nationalist rapper Danny Bones to MAGA fantasy girl Jessica Foster.

There’s familiar baggage too, including persistent questions about originality, whether AI-generated work, or even a likeness, has been lifted from real creators, and whether these tools simply reproduce the same old biases in synthetic form. Organizer Fanvue has already faced criticism for this in the past: in 2024, a Guardian columnist described its “Miss AI” beauty pageant as something that “take(s) every toxic gendered beauty norm and bundle(s) them up into a completely unrealistic package.”

To Fanvue’s Jones, creators inevitably leave something of themselves in the AI characters they make. “You can’t help but put a little bit of yourself into the stories that you tell and the characters that you make,” he said, urging creators to “lean into that.” The idea feels at home in the influencer economy: not strictly real, but a form of synthetic authenticity the internet already knows how to handle.

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Robert Hart

Technology

Amazon Health AI brings a doctor to your pocket

Published

56 minutes ago

March 23, 2026

Press Room

Amazon Health AI brings a doctor to your pocket

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Most people have had this moment. You feel a strange symptom, open your phone and start searching online. Within minutes, you are deep in medical forums reading worst-case scenarios. By the end, you are either terrified or more confused than when you started.

Health care should feel clearer than that. Yet for many of us, it rarely does. Appointments take weeks. Medical records are hard to understand. You often have to repeat the same health history at every visit. Insurance rules feel like a maze.

According to the American Academy of Physician Associates, many Americans say navigating the healthcare system feels overwhelming and they wish doctors had more time to listen. Now, a new tool from Amazon hopes to change that experience. It is called Amazon Health AI.

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Amazon Health AI lets you ask health questions, review records and connect with care directly through the Amazon app. (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)

What Amazon Health AI actually does

Amazon Health AI, available at amazon.com/health-ai, acts as a digital health assistant that can answer medical questions and help guide you through your care. The tool lives inside the Amazon app and website.

You start by typing a health question into a chat box. From there, the system can:

Explain lab results in plain language
Review symptoms and suggest next steps
Help schedule care with a provider
Assist with prescription renewals
Recommend relevant health products if asked

Health AI connects directly with clinicians from Amazon One Medical when professional care is needed. You can message a provider, start a video visit or schedule an in-person appointment. The goal is to make getting care simpler. Instead of spending time searching for appointments or jumping between different apps, you can move from a question to a provider more quickly. If symptoms suggest a possible emergency, the system may advise you to contact emergency services, such as calling 911.

Amazon is gradually rolling the Health AI tool out to U.S. customers, and availability varies by location.

CyberGuy reached out to Amazon for comment about the new service. Andrew Diamond, Ph.D., M.D., chief medical officer at Amazon One Medical, said the goal is to reduce some of the everyday frustrations people face when navigating healthcare.

“Nearly two-thirds of Americans feel overwhelmed by the healthcare system and wish their doctors had more time to understand their concerns,” Diamond said. “Health AI is designed to handle the logistical and informational work that creates friction in healthcare, so patients and providers can spend more time on what matters most: the human relationship at the heart of healing.”

How Amazon Health AI uses your medical history

Health AI becomes more useful when it understands your medical history.

With permission, the system can access information such as:

Past diagnoses
Medications
Lab results
Doctor’s notes

This data flows through a secure national network called the Health Information Exchange. Health AI can access records from hundreds of thousands of providers nationwide once permission is granted.

For example, imagine someone with asthma develops a cough during flu season. A generic search might treat that symptom like any other cough. Health AI can look at your history and ask follow-up questions based on your specific risk factors.

Health AI can provide general information about someone else’s health question, but personalized answers are limited to the medical history of the account holder.

That context helps the system provide more relevant guidance. Still, the assistant does not replace doctors. When the situation requires medical judgment, it connects you with a real clinician.

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Health AI can help explain lab results, check symptoms and connect you with care through your phone. (Amazon)

How Amazon connects AI with real medical care

The service works closely with Amazon One Medical providers. Prescription renewals can also move through the system, with requests sent to a One Medical provider who reviews the request before approval. You can fill prescriptions through Amazon Pharmacy or another pharmacy you prefer. This approach helps reduce the steps people often face when trying to get care. Instead of spending time searching for appointments or jumping between different apps, you can move from a question to a provider more quickly.

Special access for Prime members

Amazon is also adding a limited introductory benefit. Eligible members of Amazon Prime can receive up to five free message-based consultations with a One Medical provider.

Neil Lindsay, senior vice president of Amazon Health Services, said the goal is to make care easier to access through the tools people already use. “Eligible Prime member accounts get up to five free direct message care consultations with a One Medical provider for any of the 30 common conditions,” Lindsay said.

These visits cover common conditions, including:

Colds and flu
Allergies and acid reflux
Pink eye and UTIs
Hair loss and skin care

Outside the promotion, message or telehealth visits typically cost about $29. A full One Medical membership provides broader virtual care and costs less for Prime members than for non-members.

How Amazon says it protects health data

Health information raises serious privacy questions. Amazon says Health AI runs inside a HIPAA-compliant environment with strong encryption and strict access controls. According to the company, personal health data is not used to sell ads. Amazon also says protected health information from One Medical and Amazon Pharmacy is not used for advertising or sold to third parties.

The system also includes safety guardrails. If the AI cannot confidently answer a question, it directs you to a human provider. Behind the scenes, the technology runs on Amazon’s AI platform called Amazon Bedrock.

Amazon also emphasized that Health AI was designed alongside medical professionals rather than built purely as a technology product.

“This isn’t a chatbot with a healthcare skin,” said Prakash Bulusu, chief technology officer at Amazon Health Services. “It’s a system designed from the ground up to be personalized, trustworthy and useful.”

Bulusu said he personally tested the system with his own health data, and it surfaced lab work he had forgotten to complete after a physical exam.

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You can ask Health AI about symptoms and receive guidance before deciding whether to seek medical care. (Amazon)

Why Amazon believes AI belongs in healthcare

Millions of people already search Amazon for vitamins, blood pressure monitors and health products. The company believes AI can help guide those searches and connect them with medical advice. Amazon also partnered with major health systems, including the Cleveland Clinic and Rush University System for Health, to create smoother referrals between primary care and specialists. The idea is continuity. You should not feel like you are starting from scratch every time you see a new provider.

What this means for you

Tools like Health AI show how quickly artificial intelligence is moving into everyday health decisions. For patients, the potential benefits are clear. Faster answers. Simpler records. Easier access to doctors.

Yet it also raises big questions about privacy, data control and how much we rely on automated systems for health advice. AI can help people understand their health. But the human doctor still plays the absolute most important role. The challenge will be finding the right balance.

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Kurt’s key takeaways

Healthcare can be frustrating. Long waits, confusing records and disconnected systems often leave you feeling lost. Amazon believes AI can help guide you through that process. If the technology works as promised, it could help millions of us understand our health faster and reach care sooner. Still, any system that handles sensitive medical information must earn trust over time. That trust will depend on transparency, security and how responsibly companies use personal health data.

Would you feel comfortable letting an AI assistant review your medical history and guide your health decisions? Let us know by writing to us at Cyberguy.com.

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Technology

Crimson Desert dev apologizes for use of AI art

Published

13 hours ago

March 22, 2026

Press Room

Crimson Desert dev apologizes for use of AI art

Reviews of Crimson Desert have been mixed, but the bigger issue for the game has been the discovery of what appeared to be AI-generated assets in the final release. Now the developer has acknowledged that AI art was indeed used during the game’s creation, but says that it was intended to be replaced before release. In a statement on X, the company said it was conducting a “comprehensive audit” to identify and replace any AI-generated content.

The company apologized for both its inclusion in the final release and for not being more transparent about its use during development. “We should have clearly disclosed our use of AI,” it said.

The use of generative AI in gaming has become a hot-button issue of the last couple of years as it’s made its way into several high-profile titles. While some large studios have embraced it, many smaller developers have revolted against the trend, proudly proclaiming their games to be “AI free.”