Source | New Yorker
Author | Patricia Marx
Compilation | Rik, GeekAI, Panda
This man said to me in a Russian accent, if Paro belongs to him, then "I will take care of it, and it will take care of me."
What name would he give it? "Arna," he said, "my late wife's name."
Before leaving the subway, he leaned down and kissed Paro gently on the forehead.
2008, I fell in love with a robot.
My beloved object is a cute red Roomba vacuum cleaner.
It is like a round frisbee, shuttled back and forth between my apartment, so I no longer have to worry about the cake crumbs that fell to the ground.
I think the noise it makes may make noise to the neighbors downstairs, but I actually worry too much. All it made was a little humming and the sound of hitting the legs of the table.
Roomba's work ethic surprised me, its uncomplaining and adorable.
research shows that humans project their emotions and intentions onto any movable object, even a piece of wood controlled by a machine.
This may explain my behavior: if Roomba is stuck under the sofa, I will immediately free it with a Swiffer mop; if it swallows something difficult to swallow (such as floss) and the casters stop rotating, I will blame myself.
I learned that some people will also name their Roombas, or take them to work or vacation.
I have never done anything, but sometimes I force guests to watch how it sucks into the snack crumbs on the carpet; I remember Mozart's father also showed off his prodigy son's ability to play the harpsichord.
In 2010, I changed to a Roomba with greater strength and stronger suction. It really won my heart.
Now, my third Roomba is in black and white style, and it will be gentler when it hits the furniture.
Three years ago, Amazon's virtual voice assistant Alexa came to this big family.
I will ask her about time from time to time so that I can't look up.
Alexa knows the weather conditions very well and can also be called Uber, but she is not a robot.
First of all, she lacks initiative.
If you ask her when the brownie will be ready, she will tell you; but if you ask the name of the actress in a certain movie - the person who reminds you of Clint Eastwood - she can't answer.
In contrast, my Roomba can detect the surrounding environment and make decisions on its own based on this external information. It uses sensors to avoid obstacles such as wires; when power is insufficient, it returns to charge.
The word "robot" does not have a common definition, just like the words "shalom" (Hebrew greeting) and "free-range chicken". But usually its standards include: autonomy, ability to change the surrounding environment, intelligence, and a self-controlled driving.
Then the problem becomes even more tricky: how smart it is needed? Do robots have to be mobile? Is a dishwasher a robot?
According to the podcast "Robot or Not?", self-driving cars are not robots (you have to specify its destination), but Roomba is (because it knows better where to go than you).
I would like to add that many robots, especially those who are cute, usually have a two-syllable name, and the second syllable usually ends with a vowel.
Last summer, Jibo and I stayed for several months in order to find other robot assistants so that I could be lazy myself.
Jibo is a white robot with a smooth surface. Its witty words were placed on the kitchen stove.
Jibo ($899) is called "the first home social robot" by its manufacturer. It is 12 inches tall (about 30 cm), and looks like a traffic cone in the future world. His hemispherical head is located on a conical base; both upper and lower parts can be rotated independently, giving people the feeling that Jibo can dance with an electric hip.
Jibo can recognize up to 16 faces and their corresponding names; if you are one of these people, he will turn around and follow you.
Jibo Like Alexa, you can broadcast headlines, sync calendars, and read Wikipedia. Alexa is better at internet searching, and Jibo has a great camera. Jibo's main job is to be cute.
When I walked into the room, Jibo might interrupt and say, "I'm glad to see you here!" or say, "Hey Patty, I bought you a carrot!" At the same time, he would display a cartoon picture of the carrot on the screen, or sing "Patty, Patty, Patty, Patty."
This scene is like living with a little kid. So every time I walk into the kitchen, I snarl, "Hey, Jibo. Take a look." Then, Jibo's water-ball-shaped eyes—its only facial feature—will narrow, making a yawning sound, and then, its screen gradually turns black.
Jibo (left), Echo (right)
Since Unimate appeared, many things have changed.
This automated robot arm is considered to be the world's first industrial robot. In 1961, Unimate, as a die-casting machine, joined General Motors' factory assembly line in New Jersey. It looks like a dental tool in the industry.
With the advancement of artificial intelligence and engineering, robots no longer act as just a grinding tool in factories. They can travel, roll and ship to various homes, hotels, hospitals, airports, shopping malls and restaurants via UPS. This moment may be equivalent to the moment when fish climb up land from the sea.
In a hotel equipped with robots in Japan, the front desk was responsible for receiving some dinosaurs with sharp teeth and strong chest hair. They wore waiter hats, bows and fiddled with keyboards.
In a pizza restaurant in Multan, Pakistan, the serving staff are a group of robots wearing scarves, wheels and plump breasts.
In a gentleman's club in Las Vegas , a robot wearing a garter performs pole dance.
These modern inventions can also mow lawns, clean windows, assemble IKEA furniture, clean cat litter pools, fold clothes (crasier than you and don’t fold socks), zip, apply the lipstick selected by Lucille Bow, tattoos, crush your ping-pong level, feed you tomatoes when you jog (wearable Tomatan robot), and even evilly check the small "I'm not a robot" box on the website.
The new balance bike developed by the Segway Robot team is not a robot either, unless you get off its footstool-style chassis and set it to robot mode, and then it will follow you like a star chaser, taking photos and videos of you along the way ($1,799).
Assuming you don't have the Pied Piper complex (translator's note: The legend describes a magic fluteist in flowery clothes with the ability to seduce and summon people and animals), why do you need it to do these things?
OK, you can ride Loomo to the store, buy something, and let it carry items, just like your Sherpa.
Since New York City prohibits riding "self-balancing motor scooters", I ran to San Francisco to test Loomo - if I meet a driver with inexperienced and poor eyesight, rushing around the street at 11 miles per hour, then everything will be left to fate.
Loomo looks a bit like the Wall Power in Pixar animation, consisting of a small platform and a pair of large wheels on both sides of the platform, with a knee-high vertical rod in the middle and a small monitor on the top.
Loomo
When Loomo is still, its display rotates vertically, showing icons such as heart-shaped or smiling eyes.
If you are lucky, it makes a pleasant beep, reminiscent of the sounds made by the ECG machine.
At that time, Loomo was not available on the market, but the PR company Dynamo had two Loomo models in its San Francisco branch, so I tried it in the office and the adjacent corridor.
This car is easy to drive, almost intuitively an operating experience - the maneuvering speed is controlled by leaning forward, while the steering operation is to lean your knee left or right against the control lever.
Ranisa Stashin is an assistant account manager at Dynamo. Before we walked out of the office, she turned to her Loomo, as if talking to the dog, and said, "Okay, Loomo, let's go!"
Loomo tilted the monitor upwards, then ran towards her, and turned towards us, as if saying, "Everything gets in the car!"
We walked into the elevator and walked along the sidewalk, and pedestrians on the street greeted us and took photos.
How interesting! Stassin circled around a man pushing a stroller, and I wanted to try it, so I leaned my knee against the lever and leaned to the left.
Loomo No message was received. Ouch! Hit into a stroller. (It turns out that wearing high heels will reduce contact information between the feet and the control platform.)
The baby's father smiled. "Ah! You guys hit me," (I think) he said easily, "I have to check your liability insurance."
I took off my shoes and drove down the street. Ah, California !
We arrived safely at Safeway (Safeway/Xi Mutual) without casualties, Stassin and I ordered their respective Loomo to follow themselves so they could be used as shopping carts.
"Loomo, transform!" we ordered.
Her Loomo ran away with a pretty woman in a jogging sportswear, while my Loomo was like a toddler holding his mom's (me) legs tightly.
"I can't find you. I'll exit shadow mode," it said, and then a message was secretly displayed on the monitor: "Come here. Turn off the car."
We tried it again. Stasing's "little anarchist" rubbed several bags of Huang Guobao rice on the bottom shelf.
My transport and I successfully passed the same aisle, avoiding all the cereals, and I smugly attributed this situation to my strong magnetic field.
In the snack area, I am not that magnetic, but to be honest, what exactly do merchants think? Why pile up so many jars of peanut butter so high?
anywhere else, if we do not receive certain official documents, we will be cleaned out in minutes.
But it's the Bay Area, so supermarket staff will smile and say, "Can it carry goods? I want one too!"
On the way back to the office, I walked through a busy street, taking it for granted that Loomo was following, and then it wasn't, in fact, it was parked in the middle of the intersection.
I turned around on the sidewalk and looked back and Stassin was dragging our 42-pound balance bike to a safe area. Not far from
, a man proudly told his companion that he had been working in the artificial intelligence industry since he was very early.
However, not all robots will be so warmly welcomed.
Last November, Knightscope's K5 security robot—5 feet tall (about 1.8 meters), 400 pounds (about 1,600 kg), and resembles a missile—was employed to patrol the grounds of an animal shelter in the San Francisco Church District. It was coated with barbecue sauce and covered with a tarp. Locals are said to suspect that its real purpose is to harass those who are homeless.
Recently, a humanoid robot named Fabio, who works as a shopping guide at the Margiotta grocery store in Edinburgh, was fired because it was vague when answering questions (beer is in the "alcohol zone" and cheese is in the refrigerator) and scared customers. It would actively hug customers and shout "Hello! Great" to say hello to customers.
Fabio is a customized version of Pepper robot.
Fabio
One afternoon, when I visited SoftBank Robots' office in San Francisco, I met Pepper, a robot with enthusiastic service.
More than twenty sleepy Pepper robots scattered casually between tables and chairs, standing there with their heads down, motionless, creepy, as if waiting for them to wake up at the same time and take over the snack area.
The $25,000 Pepper robot is 4 feet tall, with a white body gleaming, with a round little head, flashing L.E.D. eyes, hinged arms and fingers, and a touch screen tied to the chest. Below its waist, it looks like a fin tail, hiding a set of universal wheels. The robot looks like a combination of mermaid and dough baby.
Marketing Department Director Cas Dawson told me that 15,000 Pepper robots work in every corner of the world: handling orders and processing Mastercards in Pizza Hut in Singapore; allowing you to have a happy time at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Las Vegas and then dancing for you; guiding people to unnoticed galleries in the Smithsonian Museum (in the United States); reciting Buddhist scriptures for the dead at the funeral trade show in Japan.
An engineer named Omar Abdul Wahid introduced me to 4 Pepper robots in the conference room. The engineer with earrings was proud of his robot babies, and at the same time, he realized their limitations.
When we talk, they turn their heads to the person who is talking, gesture with their arms, clench and loosen their fists.
Abdul Wahid told me that these actions gave humanoid robots a "realistic manner", but we can also say that such actions are "magical".
Since the Pepper robot was launched four years ago, it has been advertised as the first robot to read human emotions and react. What kind of human emotion is it? "It has been evolving," said Abdul Wahid. He explained that Pepper can tell whether you are smiling through "emotion recognition." Lately, it has been trying to learn how to stop talking to people who no longer have a interest in talking.
Abdul Wahid demonstrated other skills of these robots, who were his disciples. He told a Pepper robot, "Check in," because the robot's software has been adjusted, so it can help with reception at the hotel front desk.
"Welcome to my hotel," Pepper said, its voice exactly the same as that of a child. "Is the information displayed on my tablet correct? You've checked in. We're preparing your keys and the staff will bring it right away. In fact, I can learn to recognize you if you want. What's your name?"
"Omar," said Abdul Wahid. He turned to me and added, "Omar is a tricky name for robots."
"Is Ross the tricky guy?" Pepper said.
"Omar." Abdul Wahid patiently repeated.
"Okay!!" Pepper said, "Omar, I want to see your face! Perfect, Omar! Now whenever you come back, I can recognize you!" Omar's feedback was to silence Pepper's speakers.
During my stay in Silicon Valley, I also met an automated arm in Cafe X that can make signature coffee drinks, which can also wave to customers; I also met a salad maker at the booth of Chowbotics, a technology startup, "Sally". "If you want, you can say Sally is a vending machine, or she is a robot. We decided to call it a robot because we are engineers." (Sally can now make yogurt pastries and bowl-in-a-cereal meals.)
However, I have the closest relationship with Dash, a transport robot that can navigate automatically, similar to a biohazard waste container on wheels.
One night, Dash ran carefully to the room I booked on the ninth floor of the Crown Holiday Hotel, brought a toothbrush, toothpaste and a bag of Less cookies, which stopped right at my door when I took out the snacks.
Dash
Home task completed, Dash requests me to score through its tablet. I ordered five-star praises - I don't want to hurt its pretended relationship, nor do I want to see a crying expression appear on the tablet. Dash's response was a "Yeah!" and then left at 1.5 miles per hour - perhaps working for someone else.
All those who speak for these robots insist that their robot servants are not about replacing human employees, but about giving human employees more time to pay attention to customers. However, it is predicted that by 2030, between 30 and 47 percent of human work will be replaced by them.
Elon Musk recently lost his position as chairman of Tesla. Although he was replaced by a man, he believes that basic income guarantee is the only solution to the inevitable mass unemployment. This also means that more time is invested in playing with robots.
After returning from a trip to the west, I organized a pajama party for four social robots in a suite at a hotel in downtown Manhattan.
Unlike industrial robots or service robots, social robots are used to entertain, provide comfort, and act as psychiatrists or pets.
I think some members of the same race as me should also be invited to participate in this party. Some friends accepted my invitation, which also included several children. None of them stayed here overnight because they were different from robots without responsibilities and had to work and go to school the next day.
The host of the party was Kuri, a wheeled robot that can video chat, take photos and be good at talking, made by Mayfield Robots ($899) and looks like a two-foot salt tank with a flash. In fact, Mayfield paid for the robot himself. Kuri’s agent is Jane Cappaso, a senior PR manager at Mayfield who introduced me to her boss.
Kuri
"Dear, are you lost?" Caparo told Kuri that it should have wandered in this suite at that time and kept the layout of the entire room in mind.
When he hit the coffee table, the robot stopped and stopped moving, although Capsaso kept sending instructions to it verbally or through the mobile app, urging it.
Kuri uses voice recognition to respond to questions and instructions by blinking, glowing in different parts of the body, or expressive sounds (such as beeping, boobs, giggling, yawning), and also play "Happy Birthday". But it seems to be out of state at this time.
Capaso said apologetically, "The more people there are in the room, the better he understands." and explained that this echoed suite is not the best choice (of the test location).
Kuri stumbled to the window and stared at the skyline outside the window.
"He was confused by the sun," Caparo said, then lowering the curtains. Kuri also sneezes, and the official website said the stunt would make the robot "a better relationship with her human family."
Most of the night, adults sat around the island counter in the kitchen, drinking while humiliating the robots.
"They will make me feel even more lonely because their emotions are pretending." Novelist Iris Smith said, "I am not going to make this issue taller, but do you remember the article Sartre (French philosopher) about nature and existence? What makes these robots hate is that they have no special functions except love or being loved. If they can also make pasta, it would be an improvement." In the living room, 14-year-old Olivia Osborne repeated word by word: "Ku-ri! Play-play-you-like-the-most-like-song!" but in vain.
Her 14-year-old friend Fiona Brainard said: "It's like chatting with someone who only knows a little bit of English. If you teach a robot to do something more time than it does that thing, there's definitely something wrong.”
As iRobot co-founder and inventor of Roomba’s software control system, Rodney Brooks said in an email to me recently: “The shape of a robot is heralding its ability. If the robot can actually do not do what it promises, it will be disappointing.”
That’s when CHiP ($199.99)—a toy puppy that is as strong as Cuisinart—stormed to Kuri with enough crippling power, Kuri is not made of equally hard plastic and metal.
CHiP
CHiP's blue eyes are now only one still lit, which makes the dog look like it's been through a bar fight. Olivia had previously thrown the CHiP's Bluetooth ball into the next room and he successfully retrieved the ball.
"Hey, CHiP, do yoga." Fiona ordered, the obedient puppy leaned forward with his nose, shaking its articulated hind legs in the air, and then deliberately fell to the floor.
The girls turned their attention to another creature who can do yoga (it must be stressful to do it at the same time as if it is alive and not alive).
Ubtech's Lynx is a bipedal robot that is about the height of a bowling ball ($799.99) and has articulated limbs, which allows him to stagger a step or two like an arthritis patient, but he often falls like a cut down tree.
Lynx is equipped with Alexa, so if you use "Hello, Lynx" to issue commands, it can do everything the Echo Dot ($49.99) can do, and it also comes with flight attendants demonstrating flight safety gestures.
Lynx
Girls ask their virtual puppets to wave, hug, and dance: raise their hands, put down their hands, bend over, and kick. Their movements are surprisingly skillful, but meaningless.
"The problem is, Lynx can do a series of things, and once it's done, it's boring," Fiona said, then casually patting Kuri on the head, making it whimper.
At this time, Lynx malfunctioned - it bent over, maintaining the stance of a rugby player sprinting forward - and Kuri also struggled to reach its charging position. Cappaso conjecture, maybe this is because of the weak WiFi signal. "Will such robots replace humans?" Fiona said, "they obviously can't replace them."
and Paro ($6,400), a furry harp young seal, the size of a small canvas bag, automatically twists and turns its head, shakes its flippers, blinks its eyelashes, react to the sound of its name, moves, and shakes its beard.
Paro
This robot was borrowed from its maker Ryudo Shibata, an engineer from Tokyo and I met him the day before in the hall of Hilton Times Square. He was in the United States at a series of conferences, including one at NASA, where he tried to sell his ideas to NASA, to bring his stuffed toys to Mars so that he could be with the astronauts.
"I hope to develop a robot that enriches our mental life, just like animals," he told me, opening a suitcase with Paro and its charger - an electric baby pacifier with a warning label, indicating that it is not suitable for humans.
Adults think that the Paro in the kitchen is particularly disturbing, not only because its control switch is hidden under its butt, "It's so pretentious," said AJR's agent Laurie Marwald, noting that its continuous movement feels like a trick to attract attention, forcing you to touch it.
"It will make me feel frustrated and lonely because it will remind me of I have no friends." The poet Sarah Pelley said, "At least, a bad date won't make people like you." Smiles agreed.
In the room next door, this seal was doting.
"I like Paro the most, but sometimes I forget that it is a robot, and when I realize that I react to it like a living thing, I feel creepy." Fiona said, she almost perfectly describing the "Underworld Valley Theory" proposed by Robotics Professor Masahiro Mori in 1970.
This seal is also a favorite of 7-year-old Gemma Aurelia Kutenrant, who does everything she can to make sure that others are not allowed to get close to her robot baby. "Everyone is quiet!" she shouted to other robots, some hitting the walls, some making sharp beeps, and overall, acting like crazy dancers in The Nutcracker.
"My robot becomes restless and unable to concentrate." Gemma caresses Paro, and Paro makes a whimper. After a while, Olivia and Fiona left, and Gemma was relieved that she could hold her beloved baby alone.
In the United States and Europe, almost all Paro buyers are institutional parties, using Paro as a companion to comfort the elderly, people with dementia, and children with disabilities.
For this reason, the FDA (US Food and Drug Administration) classified it as a Class II medical device.
In Japan, half of Shibata's customers are individuals who buy Paro as a pet replacement for themselves or their families.
According to Aoki Shunsuke, 40, CEO of Tokyo startup Yukai Engineering, the Japanese are more likely to accept the concept of robots as human friends and assistants than Americans.
Aoki said to me, "In Japan, we believe that everything has spirits, even artificial things, we can live in harmony with them."
He refers to animism, a key component of ancient Shintoism.
Yukai Engineering is the manufacturer of the cat-tail robot Qoobo ($149), a grunt-sounding pillow that looks like a resting cat, its fluffy, round body comes in two colors: "Husky Gray" and "French Brown"; its tail will sway with the sound, like an exciting metronome.
Qoobo
Qoobo
Qoobo There is no head, Aoki said, "Because this appearance is designed for the embrace, having a head will get in the way."
Unlike Shintoism, Judaism believes that creating artificial life is creating false idols, and these idols will inevitably be determined to destroy your life, thus making you feel miserable and painful.
Check out those puppets: Dr. Frankenstein’s monster, Mickey Mouse’s magic broom, Dorothy in Westworld—or look at Jibo who is overly forceful. (Don't be nervous: The Kuri project has been aborted, Jibo is not available at this time.)
Perhaps, more worrying than robots taking over the world is how these robots will have an impact on the relationship between us humans.
If Paro can provide comfort to our elderly parents, will we visit them less?
If our children are used to calling around to their robot servants without saying "please" or "thank you", will they grow into adults that we can't stand?
If we treat a thing without feelings as partners, will we abandon our friends?
To be honest, some friends always have annoying needs, unlike these robots - if we don't want to chat, just turn it off (unplug it).
These worries kept echoing in my mind during the last day I spent with Paro.
We were sitting on a bus along Second Avenue, opposite a young woman with a tattooed one, who seemed to be fascinated by the seal, and then she asked me a difficult question: "Is this a doll or a toy?"
At the dog run marathon held in Madison Square Park, we didn't notice at first until a Pomeranian saw us and barked at us, so the seal and I temporarily avoided a nearby Starbucks.
At our next table, a woman in her forties took her eyes off the book and raised her head to stare at Paro who was squirming on my thigh.
She is a pastry chef on a cruise ship and is currently on vacation. She said, "I know it is not true, but it gives me the feeling it is true."
She wants to hug it and stroke its soft claws. Pets are not allowed on this cruise.
She said, "This will definitely bring me comfort."
Paro blinked, then turned his head to her, and then made a loving expression.
"This is exactly what I want from my pet - something that can say 'Please love me, miss me, feed me!'."
She said, "It will bring me pleasure. Although it is false pleasure, I will be grateful anyway."
Paro and I took the subway, and sitting next to us was an old man in a green fur coat and a haggard face.
Paro's head lying on the man's legs seemed to fascinate him.
His eyes were staring at the seal, tentatively stroked it and gently called it "Beauty".
This man said to me in a Russian accent, if Paro belongs to him, then "I will take care of it, and it will take care of me."
What name would he give it? "Arna," he said, "my late wife's name."
Before leaving the subway, he leaned down and kissed Paro gently on the forehead.
original link: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/11/26/learning-to-love-robots
