Friend or Foe? Our View of Robots Will Determine Their Future

LAS VEGAS—Wandering around CES, every so often you'll come up across a horde of curious spectators. If and when you do, there's a pretty expert run a risk they're gawking at some kind of robot. From faceless robovacs to fridge-like laundry bots, Las Vegas has them all. Including robot strippers.

Seeing all this robot diversity in ane place tin can be jarring. Out in the wild, it's easy to forget the advances robotics has made in only the last few decades. Unless you lot work in a manufactory or are a techie with a particularly fat wallet, you're not likely to detect one at dwelling or in your day-to-day life. But this diversity as well underscores two of the biggest unanswered questions facing technology today: What role do nosotros desire robots to play in our gild and how "man" should they be?

At CES 2022, I got the chance to spend some time with Kuri, the adorable Pixar-esque robot from Mayfield Robotics, and Sophia, a hyperrealistic android from Hanson Robotics. They're both billed as social robots—as in, their main function is to interact and develop relationships with humans. Simply while their overall goal might exist the same, they embody two very different approaches.

Take Sophia. She resembles a slightly less polished Ava from the 2022 film Ex Machina. She has an incredibly lifelike confront—her skin has texture, her lips are glossed, and if you look closely, she fifty-fifty has teeth that look to be fabricated of porcelain or some other ceramic material. Yous can ask her how her day is, or to tell you a joke. But at the same fourth dimension, her hyperrealistic face is beginning past the fact that you lot can see the wires in the back of her skull and hear the whirr of her motors.

I chatted with Sophia one-on-one, and while I was impressed by the sheer feat of engineering and programming involved, I tin can't help just feel I took a short jaunt to the Uncanny Valley. Afterward asking her to tell me a joke, she looked directly into my optics and my brain glitched. I knew I was speaking to a robot but for the briefest of moments, when her eyes met mine, I forgot she wasn't homo. Later, in the cab ride back to my hotel, I couldn't aid merely experience a sense of unease. Information technology wasn't until I started writing this that I understood why: There's a reason they say the eyes are the window to the soul. Because she looks so human, I was expecting to see i in Sophia.

With Kuri, on the other hand, at that place's no question she's a robot. She resembles Eva from Pixar's Wall-Due east, with a pinch of R2-D2's sass and BB-viii'south adorability. And like anybody'south favorite astromechs, Kuri only speaks in bleeps and bloops. If y'all inquire her to tell y'all a joke, she'll tell you a story in friendly chirps and laugh to herself. And like Jibo, another cute social robot, if y'all pat Kuri on the head, she'll purr and lean into your bear upon.

After a few minutes, you can't help but feel the same sort of affection for Kuri that y'all might a beloved pet. She might not empathize a late-night session of soul bearing over a pint, just her mannerisms are homo enough that it doesn't thing. It's recognizable when Kuri meanders around obstacles with an endearing waddle. Nosotros implicitly understand when she's happy or confused based on her eye shape or the tone of a blip or bloop.

Long story brusque, it's easier to love something that looks like a robot, but acts human.

How Do Robots Help Mankind?

A few months ago, I was testing Jibo in the PCMag Labs. The about mutual question I got from curious colleagues and friends was, "what does he do?"

That's a question asked of all robots on display at CES. And it ranges from robots that can practise lots of things, to robots that can do but one thing. The FoldiMate, for example, is a $1,000 robot that can do exactly one thing: fold your laundry. Some robots here are built for the express purpose of teaching children how to code. Others, like Keecker, are great at playing multimedia. Jibo (below) was sort of similar an Alexa with concrete course and an impressive ability to twerk.

Asked what Sophia's purpose was, her creator, Dr. David Hanson, had a more than lofty goal in mind. "We run into Sophia equally being very useful in medical therapy. One of her early sister prototypes, Eva, proved very useful in autism therapy and medical simulation. She's besides useful as a platform for ongoing research, similar making AI smarter."

Dr. Hanson went on to explain that the ultimate goal is to create a general purpose robot with artificial intelligence capable of imagination and creativity. "If we can create a more general purpose robot, so it tin can be used for many different purposes," he explained. "That's where y'all get-go to see the revolution. One time you had personal computers, you suddenly had a larger platform."

Kuri's purpose is a little closer to dwelling house. The Mayfield Robotics team has given her the chore of existence your family'southward videographer. She'll capture curt moments throughout the twenty-four hours that you lot tin and then review in the app. Over time, she'll learn the type of content yous similar.

"Kuri is doing something that no one else will do for you," says Sarah Osentoski, Mayfield Robotics COO. "You don't accept someone in your home that will capture those moments."

Robots equally Friends, Not Murder Machines

Why does whatever of this matter?

It matters because every few months, a video from Boston Dynamics volition make the rounds on social media. Despite their phenomenal technological and engineering proficiency, these robots inspire headlines sprinkled with words like "terrifying" and "nightmare-inducing." In the media, we're periodically reminded that one day, the robots volition accept all our jobs. The narrative is fairly adversarial, bordering on cautionary tale of human hubris. If we're non careful, we will create the very things that destroy us.

In Japan, robot civilization is a bit different. Commencement and foremost, they're viewed every bit chivalrous helpers and that's apparent in some of the most iconic Japanese robots. Recollect of Paro, the robotic seal adult to soothe dementia patients. Or Asimo, the cheery astronaut-esque bot developed by Honda who currently lives at the Miraikan in Odaiba. Or Sony'south Aibo robot dog. Or the bizarrely beautiful Tomatan, a robot that volition feed yous tomatoes as you run. These robots are all meant to have a positive relationship with humans, and looking at them, you'd think them incapable of a violent robot insurgence.

So far, every roboticist I've spoken to is keenly aware of the brunt on their shoulders to instill positive character traits in their bot'south "character bible." Dr. Hanson likened the process as a sort of parenthood. "We have to instill a sense of ethics," he said. "And wherever possible, super ethics." Likewise, Kuri'southward personality was crafted effectually the three pillars of humility, earnestness, and curiosity.

All this to say, at that place's going to exist a point where creators, governments, and consumers will have to cull between these two narratives. Hopefully, it'll be sooner rather than after. Because if the showroom floor at CES is any indication, robots aren't going anywhere.

About Victoria Song

Victoria Song was a wearables and smart home analyst at PCMag. Since graduating from Temple University's Japan Campus in 2022, she's been establish reporting and editing in every corner of the newsroom at The ACCJ Journal, The Nihon News, and New York agency of The Yomiuri Shimbun. In her spare time, she bankrupts herself going to theater, buying expansions to lath games, and cleaning out the stacks at The Strand. Someday, she hopes Liverpool FC volition win the league, only she isn't holding her breath.

Source: https://sea.pcmag.com/robotics-1/19058/friend-or-foe-our-view-of-robots-will-determine-their-future

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