"As Pransky sees it, robots should not be feared. They should be thought of as a tool that could ultimately save humanity from the drudgery and mundane tasks necessary to human existence -- and free people for more creative and enjoyable pursuits." -MaryLynn Schiavi

Publications > Are We Ready to Live and Work with Robots? E@AT&T Feature Article pub date Aug. 16, 1999 Writer: MaryLynn Schiavi This is the first in a series of articles that will appear in E@AT&T during the course of the next five months -- in which we will explore issues surrounding intelligent agents, robots, and artificial intelligence. Are We Ready to Live and Work with Robots? At the heart of a world with artificial intelligence and human-like machines, are some very emotional issues. How will you feel about interacting with imperfect human beings after you've been spending most of your time with your robotic assistant or homework companion? Are your children spending too much time with their little robot friend? And how will your family feel when they find that you're spending more time chatting and joking with the household robot than with them? These are just a few of the many humorous yet intriguing questions that "Dr." Joanne Pransky poses to people in her role as the World's First Robotic Psychiatrist®. How will we react to robotic beings that are clearly not human but have skills and attributes that could compete with those of human beings? As Pransky sees it, many psychiatrists and psychologists need to work with the family of the patient in an attempt to ultimately help the patient. Though she is not really not a doctor, Pransky says, tongue-in-cheek, she is proactively paving the way for an emotionally healthy environment for the robots of the future. But her real mission is to help people to understand the issues that will arise in a world where highly skilled, competent, and sensitive robots will play an integral role. As a sales and marketing representative at Sankyo Robotics, the world leader of small assembly industrial robots in Boca Raton, Florida, Pransky said it is her mission to help people understand and explore what life could be like living and working among robots. According to Pransky, "Americans seem to be a little more resistant to the idea of robots than say Japan, a country that has led the way in robotics." As Pransky sees it, in our culture we are more likely to accept "industrial robots" that are most commonly in the form of a robotic arm that performs assembly line work, than a "service robot" that could take the form of a home health aide companion, a bartender, house keeper, nanny, or home work companion. The service robot would be a more human-like machine that could process information, make decisions, and be mobile enough to carry out tasks much more like a human being than a mechanical machine. They will be used in space, the military and in the medical profession where they perform precision surgical procedures. In fact, there's ROBODOC® -- a robot that is currently used to perform hip replacement surgery. There's even a robot bartender who can mix the perfect drink, though he or she may not be able to offer words of wisdom on how to save your marriage or manage your boss. In his book, Robot: Mere Machine To Transcendant Mind, Hans Moravec raises weighty issues with regard to the evolution of robots and artificial intelligence. For instance, at what point does a robot or intelligent agent develop self-awareness or self-consciousness? At what point does it develop free will? Taking the very positive view of what robots or animated machines sporting artificial intelligence could mean to our society, Pransky asks people to consider the value that robots could ultimately provide. For instance certain robots could assist elderly people in their homes and allow them to be independent rather than the move to a nursing home. Some may think it's sad that an elderly person's prime companion and assistant might be a non-human -- a robot. Then again it might be better to have a robotic body, rather than nobody. As Pransky sees it, robots should not be feared. They should be thought of as a tool that could ultimately save humanity from the drudgery and mundane tasks necessary to human existence -- and free people for more creative and enjoyable pursuits. Certainly the average American wants more intelligent machines around them. Many people who are not keyboard or computer savvy are asking for voice-activated computers, voice response systems, and intelligent agents they can talk to and get information from. In fact there are many segments of the population who would use the Internet -- if only they could talk their way through it and it could talk to them. But then the question arises: just how intelligent do we want our technology to be? And what will our reaction be to an intelligent agent that not only gathers stock information for us, but then makes the decision and actually buys the stock -- how autonomous will our intelligent machines become? Moravec predicts that, by the year 2040, we will be living and working with robots that have a consciousness similar to that of a human being. Will most human beings accept our robot citizens? Or will they be feared like all some new kids on the block? The intelligence could take the form of a customer service agent on the other end of the phone call, or it could be an intelligent agent that sits inside your desktop computer that is programmed to gather information and make decisions in your life based on your likes and dislikes. And eventually, it could be a fully mobile, human-like robot. How emotionally prepared are we to share the planet with an intelligence that we ourselves have created? Will we look at these creations with a sense of pride? Or will we look at our creation in shock and utter the familiar words in some of our science fiction movies: "Oh my, we've created a monster!" World's First Robotic Psychiatrist is a registered trademark of Joanne Pransky. ROBODOC is a registered trademark of Integrated Surgical Systems, Inc.