Dear Dr. Joanne, At the end of your article entitled Playing God: Human-Robot Boundaries in Ex-Machina, you used the term ‘Human Operating System’ (HOS) and I really wish I could hear more about your thoughts on this idea. I envision the HOS as a sort of rule set for robots (similar to Asimov’s three laws) to operate under when interacting with humans. Is this what you meant? Best Regards, JR Dear JR, Your question reminds me of how ingrained (already) the idea of “rules for robots” is in our society, especially in terms of interactions with humans. We can probably
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Don’t Blame the Robots
I never would have expected the New York Times to fall in lockstep with the conservative media by publishing an article that caters to the unduly fearful and paranoid sensibilities of the knee-jerkers via the headline: “As Robots Grow Smarter, American Workers Struggle to Keep Up.” Most surprising and disappointing was the fact that the article featured quotes solely from economists; not a single representative of the robotics industry was referenced. I know I’m not alone in questioning the logic and wisdom of that approach! If an article is going to insinuate that robots are to blame for a myriad
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Be Here Now
I recently had the privilege of attending an industry only event – the Robotics Industries Association (RIA) Collaborative Workshop. It’s been awhile since I’ve been in the audience at an RIA workshop; a decade perhaps? As a non-engineer trying to understand robotics – one of the most complex technical fields on the planet (and off the planet) – and listen to the sessions by the world’s leading manufacturers at this Workshop – I need all the brain boosting I can to focus and understand. However, today one is expected to Tweet to the conference #hashtag. Obviously, I want to support this industry
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‘Her’ in the Flesh?
‘Flesh’ may not quite be accurate (at least not yet), but could JIBO be the first real ‘Her’? I can’t wait – The World’s First Robotic Psychiatrist® could have an actual ‘patient’ by the year 2016 when JIBOs become the first family robot. Both the robot and the marketing campaign are brilliant. JIBO is the #1 most successful technology campaign on Indiegogo. This is not an overnight start-up or a hyped funding effort. This is a 15-year labor of ‘love (child)’ of Dr. Cynthia Breazeal, the founding mother of social robots, and the culmination of nearly two decades of unprecedented
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My lips are sealed – permanently
I met BlabDroid and its brilliant creator, Alexander Reben, at a recent robot conference, where one can’t help but fall for the loveable Droid (it was tough for me not to, but I was able to restrain myself and maintain a professional relationship in the hopes that BlabDroid would someday be my patient). At first glance, BlabDroid appears to be a cute toy-ish robot made out of corrugated box. However, this little brains-on-board-its-cardboard robot is equipped with sensors and a high resolution video camera that interacts with humans via programmable personalities to create the world’s first documentary shot and directed
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Samantha – Turing me on
I love the following article about TIME’s Washington Bureau Chief trying to decipher if a telemarketer was a robot: http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/12/10/meet-the-robot-telemarketer-who-denies-shes-a-robot/ This is a story the World’s First Robotic Psychiatrist® has waited a lifetime for, as the significance is not so much as whether or not the caller was a human or a ‘robot’, but that it still has not been proven one way or another. Alan Turing would be delighted. (December was a good month for him. Just days ago, he was given a posthumous pardon by the Queen of England. The Royal pardon only took 61 years…) Did Samantha pass the Turing Test? She denied she was
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Hup two, three, four – you can do it
My friend, Dr. Julie Albright, sent me the following National Science Foundation (NSF) study being conducted at USC entitled Socially Assistive Robots for Post Stroke Rehabilitation, utilizing robots to provide motivation and instruction. Another NSF project, focusing on children, is: ‘Socially Assistive Robotics: An NSF Expedition in Computing’. Here are a few more social robots to keep an eye on, as they will certainly be looking after us: Autom – Weight Loss Coach Jibo, Inc. – a new startup founded by Cynthia Breazeal, a pioneer of social robotics and human robot interaction Zeno R25 – One of the most advanced social robots in the world, built by David
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remix-it-up
My teenage daughter got an auxiliary cord for the car that allows her to play music directly from her iPhone directly through the car stereo and speakers. She uses an app that downloads songs from the internet, either in real-time or from ones she’s already added to her list. I actually like a lot of the music she listens to, though there’s those occasional rap lyrics that I don’t care much for, like Jeremih’s Birthday Sex. Today I learned that a ‘remix’ is a digitized version of a song. What I said to my daughter was, “if I wanted to
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artificial sex
Careful what you think, as it may extend to more than just your own brain. (I’m certainly hoping that my robotic assistant will understand my thoughts even before I speak. That way, I can Blog in my Brain and have a direct neural connection to the internet/rest of the world.) Is this a good thing? How can I control not sharing my personal thoughts at the same time? Will there be a private mode before my thoughts go public and is there a way I can edit my thoughts before sharing? Let’s say I’m blogging in my brain which is
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Lookalikes
I don’t mean to criticize (OK, I really do), but the headline “More human than human: People prefer robots that look like them”, should not be taken at face value (pun intended). Scientific studies can be extremely valuable, but not when they’re taken out of context. Many times, headlines are created which give the reader a false summary of the research. I doubt the writer of the article created the title, as it is the creative title that translates into advertising dollars for the publisher. Who writes these titles? 60 Minutes? The National Enquirer? Am I going to have to
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