MIT Scientists Create Robotic Sea Life

Junior Barns writes "This article on the BBC News site reports on the development of a robot that imitates primitive life forms. This project led by researchers from the robotic life group at the MIT media lab is intended to study how people will try to interact with and relate to an "alien" creature that seems organic but is not anthropomorphic. Let's just hope no one tries to kill and eat it."

Comments

The real link

[unsinged int]

Here is a working link to the story. And a working BBC link.

Access problems

[K.]

If you get 403s, try clearing your BBC cookies and going via the front page, answering yes to the are you from the uk question. Worked for me.

I doubt it was slashdot wot done it too, more likely someone fucked up file or CMS permissions and hasn't noticed coz of said cookie being set to "yes" on all BBC boxes.

Rod Brooks and the Toy Factory

[Animats]

This sort of thing has been seen before. Rod Brooks, head of the MIT AI Lab, has a side business making robot toys. Their success in the toy market has been rather limited.

Their best known product is My Real Baby, manufactured by Hasbro around 1999-2000. It's basically a baby doll with Furby-type software. Rated "Worst Idea of the Year" by the Alliance for Childhood. It's not even that original; Baby Think it Over, the anti-teen-pregnancy doll from hell ("requires real care on the part of the student, including feeding, burping, rocking, and changing diapers"), has been around for years, but at a price well above the toy level.

This whole direction is way too much like Eliza. Much of the AI field, having failed at tasks that actually require doing something successfully without human assistance, now seems to be focused more on faking it. You've all seen Ask Jeeves, and obnoxious "virtual customer support reps". Those are pathetic.

There's some good work going on, but this isn't it.