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Sony's Robot Attends Pre-School
Darren writes "Sony's Qrio humanoid robot has been attending a Californian pre school to play with children under the age of 2 since March to test if robots can live harmoniously with humans. I wonder if the testing includes monitoring the 'nightmare status' of the pre-schoolers?"
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~ |rip/\/\aster /\/\onkey
The First Law would never allow that.
They will never stop until somebody makes the
IANACP*, but it seems to me that nightmares or general fear or anxiety over an object or person is due to infamiliarity. If you are exposed to something regularly for a long period of time, you simply become accustomed to its pressence. This can be said of both children and adults, but even more so of children.
* I am not a child pyschologist.
"We are investigating this mishap and we are doing everything possible to make sure unscrupulous parties are not able to program the robot to bitch slap children in the future," an unnamed Sony source said on condition on anonymity.
I'm a big tall mofo.
I mean, haven't these people watch any horror movies at all! Mark my words, there will be tears and/or bloodshed before nap time.
sheep.horse - does not contain information on sheep or horses.
I always wondered what motivation robots have for "learning". Humans are driven by various needs (e.g. shelter/sex/food/beer) - what needs do the robots have? Why should they try to improve upon themselves? I'm doubtful that programming alone will ever make robots anything more than overglorified "hello world" programs.
Yeah? Well I think you're overrated too.
I'd bet these children grow up with a radically liberal--not in the political sense--definition of legitimate consciousness and thought. What's more difficult to say, though, is whether that means they'll be pro-life nuts or scientific crusaders.
Does this robot have the 3 laws??
No sig for now.
I for one welcome our new "Dick and Jane"-reading overlords.
All comments are properties and trademarks of the voices in my head. Not like I'm gonna claim them.
I'd bet that the first human-equivalent machine intelligence takes 18 years to develop after the first human-brainpower-equivalent CPU is created. It will take that long for the machine to "learn" the world if it only has a CPU equivalent to one human brain (1 HBE).
Of course, if Moore's Law is still kicking, then 2 years into the learning phase, they can swap the 1-HBE processor for a 2-HBE processor. This will shorten the remaining learning period, but I doubt it will cut it in half. Learning to physically and mentally interact with the world will still take time. What might accelerate the learning time is if multiple copies of the intelligence can share experiences and learn directly from each other's mistakes/successes.
The point is that the first intelligent robots will need to go to preschool to learn how to interact with the world.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
I wonder if the testing includes monitoring the 'nightmare status' of the pre-schoolers?"
I wonder if the submitter has any clue as to what he's talking about.
It's pretty difficult to give toddlers nightmares. They're not easily scared. They do cry over the slightest problem, mostly because crying is the only well-developed form of verbal communication available to them at that age. They are also excellent at forgetting whatever the problem was and getting on with their lifes. Watch a kid hurt itself. Then go away and watch the same kid 10 minutes later.
It'd take a serious event to cause nightmares in those kids, and that machine has neither the looks nor the sheer physical power that would be required.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
I always wondered what motivation robots have for "learning".
Robots have no motivation other than that given them by their creators.
Robots are not sentient. We do not even know what sentience is. The only way for us humans to create sentience is to procreate.
what needs do the robots have?
Errm.. like all machines, they need a power source. That is all.
Talking about robots as if they are alive and have motivation other than their code implements belies your otaku sensibilities. Clearly, you have not yet procreated, or you would not be so obsessed with making a machine which 'pretends to make it look as if you have done so, technologically'.
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
Well, we should've learned something from the first Robocop movie - don't demo your product with a full load of live ammo.
"Your plastic pal who's fun to be with!"
"Everything you know is wrong. (And stupid.)"
Moderation Totals: Wrong=2, Stupid=3, Total=5.
Sleep, little dumpling. I have replaced your mother.
Anyone scared of what the robots might do has obviously never witnessed the destructive power of the average toddler firsthand.
The robots don't stand a chance.
After sufficient exposure, the robot will soon realize that it is not the same as the other children. It will then leave the preschool and embark upon an existential quest to be come a human child. Eventually it will realize that this is impossible, and spend the next thousand years moping around the post-apocalyptic landscape, long after all the human children are gone.
I read Usenet for the articles.
[Scene: Roboticon 3003. Leela looks around the robot presentation stands and sees Nannybot 1.0 which looks like a clunky robot version of the aliens from Alien. It holds a baby in it's arms and speaks in a booming voice.]
Nannybot 1.0: Sleep little dumpling. I have replaced your mother.
[It's mouth opens and a bottle of milk comes out on it's tongue. The baby drinks from the bottle.]
Leela: Aww!
Got to say that I loved Jennifer Government. It wasn't deep in its character development but its setting was just scary in a way. It'll most definitely make a cool movie (I wonder if they'll have to change the company names from real companies? Will Nike be pissed with a movie talking about them murdering little children?)
You correctly state that we do not know what sentience is, but then you claim that the only way to create sentience is to procreate. How do we know if we're sentient, if we do not know what sentience is?
Or is this like [insert term here]? I don't know what [term] is, but I'll know it when I see it.
Ben Hocking
Need a professional organizer?
When was the last time ANYTHING was able to live harmoniously with humans. We seem to be able to live harmoniously with ourselves let alone a peice of animated plastic and circutry
I hope the companies all stay the same. If it was legal to put in a book with a disclaimer, hopefully a movie will be no different.
They will never stop until somebody makes the
Around the age of 6, I was fascinated with spaceships, dinosaurs, racecars and robots. My love for robots resulted in many a robotic toys and I recall one birthday where I was given one of those "autonomous" 30 cm high robots that would move about in patterns, spin and open their chest to expose blazing cannons while making an awful racket. While I thought it cool in its inanimated state, I was terrified of it when it was activated. I would jump on to a stool or a bed and behold it from afar, and ask others to turn it off, when I had enough.
In the end, I had accumulated 3 robots of the sort and I got over my robot-freight. One or two of them, were actually able to fire 4 plastic projectiles, though not on their own. That required me to release a spring based firing mechanism.
When I started attending school, I once invited a friend over. By that time, I was very proud of my robot collection and I would brag, as kids do, about my toys. When telling my new found friend about my robots, I pointed out that one of the robots could fire missiles. In Danish the word missile vaguely (_vaguely_) resembles that of "oranges" (at least to a kid); and so having misheard me and perhaps never having heard the word "missiles" - he wasn't going to give me the impression that his own robot army was inferior to mine, and thus replied that his robots at home could also fire oranges.
In retrospective, the orange caliber is somewhat more impressive than little plastic darts, but back then missiles just sounded cooler than oranges.
- Mad, ingenous - they've both left you puzzled -
I think they'll find that it's not a matter of familiarity. It's a survival reflex and it's pretty deep. Your brain flags "almost human" things as grotesque and something to be avoided. It's why many people are afraid of clowns and wax figures. They look almost human, but still look wrong.
People would be far more comfortable with Bender-like robots than with "I, Robot" style robots because they don't try to be human, just humanoid. If it looks sufficiently non-human to avoid triggering that reflex, they'll be alright. Other than that it'd have to be completely perfect, like Data.
Never confuse volume with power.
or maybe 9 years if we take into account that we need to rest (even though part of resting this time is important with regard to the learning activity)
You may be right. The question is: is sleep/relaxation, etc. a critical part of intellectual development? For humans it definitely is -- sleep deprivation really messes up the brain. But even for non-biological intelligences I'd bet that some "downtime" is an important part of assimilating all the data of the day. Interacting with the world is a full-time job for the CPU that forces the deferral of many analysis and restructuring tasks that can only occur when the brain is offline.
Perhaps androids would dream because dreaming is a critical maintenance/analysis cron job.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
QRIO is apparently just a little shorter than 2 feet tall and weighs only 6.5kg (about 14lbs) with its power pack installed.
So, even if the robot went 'dead' and fell rigidly from its full height, it would probably, at worst cause a small bruise to a kids knee.
However, having read a bit on QRIO, the robot knows when it is going to, or is being forcibly overbalanced and takes apropriate action to soften its fall (hands out) and even contort to avoid objects it is falling toward.
Ripping an new rectum in the fabric of spacetime.
"...they now dance with it and help it get up when it falls." Don't children do that with toys, like dolls? They may not completely know the difference between this robot and a toy, but I think it's optimistic of Sony to say that the children think of it as a "younger brother."
I fail to see how this robot is going to prove whether robots can live in harmony with humans. It's like user testing "Reader Rabbit" software and then saying, "Yep, people can work with computer programs."
And while we're on the topic -- don't we already have robotic dogs which seem to work fine with people? This "experiment" has the word "pointless"" written all over it. Even as a publicity stunt it isn't going anywhere. The article was very short and even here on slashdot it's hard to work up any excitement about it.
I know of at least one child who was terrified of a dancing gorilla the first time he saw it. Later on, he was still somewhat afraid of it but eventually he came to enjoy the toy. (Supporting that familiarity idea.) Nevertheless, I imagine more people are afraid of monkeys and apes than there are people who are afraid of clowns and wax figures.
That aside, I still think that there's something some might find especially discomforting about robots that look like us. Whether or not this will change over time, or whether it is hard-wired into our genes is something that only time will tell, IMO. (Of course, it is remotely possible that selection will somehow act against such genes, but that's highly unlikely.)
Ben Hocking
Need a professional organizer?
It's funny you should mention Robo-cop. Because that is what we think of when we see bipedal robots. However, now these kids (who hopefully have not seen Robot-cop yet) will think of Sony's Robots. It is important to influence the public perception of new an innovative yet controversial products like this one.
Talk about me with your friends then Nag your parents to buy me!!!!!! Thanks.
Familiarity != tolerance
;)
The American South was more racist. Hitler was part Jewish. New Yorkers hate the cold.
Indeed; witness the gallery of children who are scared of Santa.
. . . that little boys tend to have a fascination with robots. I know that when I was a child, I was all like, "Man, it would be so sweet to have a robot."
I just think all you old people should just chill out and go with the flow.
disclaimer: I've been known to store numbers in my ass for which to dig out when quantities are required.
I work with robots every day. It's always seemed to me that bipedal robots were a solution looking for a problem. Because robots can be optimized for the specific task they need to perform, they will be.
People commonly think of a "robot" as a general purpose machine that can replace a human at any manual task, not realizing how many special-purpose robots are used in industry today. What people really want is the robotic maid (well, that and the sex robot, but anyway) and that's the hardest problem to solve.
Eventually, we'll solve the vision and manipulation problems that stand in the way of a robot maid, and we may see bipedal robots at that point, but there are plenty of cool robots around today, if you know where to look.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
No,no,no.
Provided the cat is in a box we can't see into, it's state is the superposition of dead and alive, so the most you can say is that Ignornace half killed the cat. Or maybe it half kept it alive, or half alive? Ow, my brain hurts.
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test if robots can live harmoniously with humans
Humans don't really seem to be able to live harmoniously with other humans, despite massive, long-term evolutionary refinement. What makes them think a hunk of nuts and bolts will do any better?
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