Greenflame » AI/Robotics

Emotional robots

stepheng — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 10:11:28 +0000

Following on from the ‘Reborn babies’ post recently here’s an article that notes the continuing development of sociable robotics, or at least robots that can learn to detect visual cues from body language and response to that ‘guess’. See Emotional robots in the spotlight.

‘Reborn babies’

stepheng — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 00:15:24 +0000

Article this week on ‘reborn babies’ - very lifelike dolls - sold to people primarily for collecting but also purchased by people like grieving parents. See ‘Reborn babies’ niche for collectors, grieving parents - Stuff.co.nz. I’m wondering if the revulsion some people feel towards them is part of the ‘uncanny valley’ response to human simulcra noted by Masahiro Mori (see Greenflame · Robots: From tools to partners).

Seems similar to the article I linked to in Greenflame · Virtual babies aim to ease parenting pain back in Feb 2004.

Robots amongst us

stepheng — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 10:03:28 +0000

A couple more robot links to go with a robot girlfriend link from a day or two back.

The first, Robotic Navi-Bear as Annoying as It Is Cute | Autopia from Wired.com, is the fusion of a talking teddy bear with a navigation system for drivers.

The second, Tartalo the robot is knocking on your door, is about a robot being built in Spain the can navigate around the wider community by recognising people’s homes.

Robot girlfriend?

stepheng — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 09:41:18 +0000

Another step in the direction of virtual companions? See Japan makes robot girlfriend for lonely men

AI Jesus

stepheng — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 01:08:42 +0000

Clearing out old web links I’d saved over the past few months I came across this one.

John La Grou’s reflections, microclesia >> AI Jesus, on interacting the AI Jesus over at www.godsbot.org.

Computer companions: Are they possible?

stepheng — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 09:40:12 +0000

I went to hear Prof Maggie Boden speak tonight on Computer companions: Are they possible?. The main thrust of the talk was that computer systems (robotic and simulations) are being created to serve three main types of roles:

Physical interaction - such as robots that are used in caregiving or domestic roles: Robo-Monk and Robot nurse will care for Japan’s lonely old people
Conversationalists - providing some sort of interactive conversation as part of doing tasks
Confidants - related to the above, but able to engage in conversation in some way based upon building up a knowledge of a person over time: such as being able to listen to, analyze and draw upon the stories that have been told it the system previously.

Boden argued that these sort of systems are in various stages of development now (particularly for commercial deployment), and that they raise a whole range of questions that go beyond the purely technical ones of whether or not functional ’sociable’ robots/system are possible.

Could a ‘computer companion’ really do x (where x might be gossip, feel sympathy, express humour)?
Could a ‘computer companion’ really be made to appear to do x?
Would a human being believe that a ‘computer companion’ could do x?
Would we want (3) to happen?
How might (3) affect human-human relationships?

These are similar questions to some that have come up in my own research so they weren’t a surprise to me, but given the discussion after the talk they were new to some there.

Update: Radio New Zealand’s Sunday Morning programme had an interview with Margaret Boden at the weekend which covered some of this material. You can listen for a while here (MP3).

Related material - a quick selection of papers, essays and books by Boden that I’ve found interesting:

Boden, Margaret A. 1985. Wonder and Understanding. Zygon 20 (4):391-400.
______. 1987. Artificial intelligence and natural man. 2nd ed. New York: Basic Books.
______, ed. 1990. The philosophy of artificial intelligence. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
______. 1995. Artificial intelligence and human dignity. In Nature’s Imagination: The frontiers of scientific vision, edited by J. Cornwell. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
______. 1998. Creativity and Artificial Intelligence. Artificial Intelligence 103 (1-2):347-356.
______. 2005. Ethical Issues of AI and Biotechnology. In Creative Creatures: Values and Ethical Issues in Theology, Science and Technology, edited by U. Görman, W. B. Drees and H. Meisinger. London: T & T Clark.

Margaret Boden is also speaking on What is creativity? : Wednesday 20 February 5.30pm, at the Gus Fisher Gallery as part of her time at the University of Auckland.

On Singularity

stepheng — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 04:40:34 +0000

A new user-driven blog relating to transhumanist ideas, and in particular, the technological singularity. See On Singularity:

People Power for the Third Millennium: Technology, Democracy and Human Rights Symposia

stepheng — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 10:49:55 +0000

The “People Power for the Third Millennium: Technology, Democracy and Human Rights” symposia from The Centre for Bioethics & Public Policy in the UK looks interesting, though being held in London means I’m hoping they’ll be something published out of them for a wider audience.

The first symposium, “Robots & Rights: Will artificial intelligence change the meaning of human rights?”, was a couple of days ago, and other upcoming topics include:

Transhuman minds? Is cognitive enhancement a human right?
Privacy and Surveillance: Monitoring humans or monitoring human rights?
Arts and technology: the role of the arts in democratic policy making

The robotic equivalent of a hug?

stepheng — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 11:37:03 +0000

iRobot have produced a new household robot (’ConnectR’) that allows you to partake in family life when you can’t be there in person. The small round robot allows you to see, hear and follow your loved ones around, as well as allowing you yo talk to them, all via wireless connectivity at home and an internet connection wherever you are.

More details on the product at iRobot Corporation: About ConnectR.

Hat tip to TidBITS Tech News: CES 2008 Day 3: Robots and Wrap-up.

Oh, and there’s a video of it in action over at Geekanerd - Video Games, Comic Books, Movies, and All Things Geek!: Digital Life: Two Minutes With the iRobot ConnectR.

Incarnational or excarnational living - the choice is yours. But somehow it doesn’t beat tucking the kids into bed in person, nor sharing the evening meal together.

Robots, robots, everywhere…

stepheng — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 09:52:45 +0000

In his post Exploring Our Matrix: Robots in the News, James McGrath points to not only the new Star Wars developments but also a couple of articles/books about robots and how we perceive them in terms of possible consciousness and relationality.

Reminds me of this quote from Ray Kurzweil’s article “The Coming Merging of Mind and Machine” (from Scientific American) where he says,

Sometime early in the next century, the intelligence of machines will exceed that of humans. Within several decades, machines will exhibit the full range of human intellect, emotions and skills, ranging from musical and other creative aptitudes to physical movement. They will claim to have feelings and, unlike today’s virtual personalities, will be very convincing when they tell us so.

As McGrath says, the issue will not be whether or not we can definitively assign agreed concepts of consciousness or personhood to synthetic systems, but whether our conscious and unconscious interactions with such systems will have already forced us to decide how we will treat them.