Teaching Robot Learners To Ask Good Questions

garthsundem writes "I disagree with this article's opening line: 'Within a decade, personal robots could become as common in U.S. homes as any other major appliance.' Haven't we been promised this since the 50s? But I'm fascinated by the rest — how do you teach humans to teach robots? Or, more precisely, how can you teach robots to teach humans to teach robots? The idea that designers can put a flexible platform in a robot, allowing users to determine functionality, is pretty interesting. The lead researcher for this project said, 'People are not so good at teaching robots because they don't understand the robots' learning mechanism. It's like when you try to train a dog, and it's difficult because dogs do not learn like humans do. We wanted to find out the best kinds of questions a robot could ask to make the human-robot relationship as 'human' as it can be.'"

Comments

Only if they drop in price a bit more

[Marxist Hacker 42]

I think the only thing keeping them out of homes NOW is no used market yet, and the high cost ($200-$5000) of entry. Basically the same problem that faced real personal computers in 1979.

Only THAT will change the real adoption of robots into the average American household.

Re:Only if they drop in price a bit more

[ae1294]

No what's keeping them out of homes right now is their unquenchable thirst for human blood...

Have the robot do the following

[xclr8r]

1. Fetch a beer from fridge.
2. Walk the dog to do its business.
3. Wash dishes.
4. Mow the Lawn.
5. Clean House.
6. Make robot programmable and able to share/sell programs ala app store.

People don't want to program stufff and you are not going to change that behaviour. Just make their life easier and give the innovators the tools to accomplish this and the rest takes care of itself.