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Could You Fall In Love With This Robot? (cnbc.com)
Hanson Robotics and Hiroshi Ishiguro Laboratories are working on developing the most humanlike robots on the planet. While they may appear creepy, many roboticists believe they are key for humans and super-intelligent machines to coexist. Sophia is the most intelligent and lifelike android the team is working on. She can reply to basic questions and comments and she will even tell you when she was activated if asked. The most "creepy" element about her is the fact that she has lifelike skin crafted with patented silicon that can emulate more than 62 facial expressions. Cameras in her "eyes" work with computer algorithms that allow her to "see," track faces, make eye contact and recognize individuals. Google Chrome voice-recognition technology along with some other tools enable Sophia to process speech, talk and get smarter over time. "Our goal is that she will be as conscious, creative and capable as any human," said Hanson, CEO of Hanson Robotics. "We are designing these robots to serve in health care, therapy, education and customer service applications."
You want to replace factory workers with robots? Sure, sounds great. It's worked well for the automotive industry, among others.
You want to replace the secretary pool and filing clerks with computers? Already happened, worked out just fine.
Simple tasks, such as replacing the greasy dude behind the counter at the local burger joint with a touchscreen ordering system? OK, I can see the use in that.
But stop replacing customer service positions with computers. People know how to interact with people. When we get a "friendly AI" on the phone, it's usually an exercise in frustration. It won't fair any better in meatspace. If I wanted my bank teller to be a robot, I'd just use the #**$ing ATM.
Those who can't do, teach. Those who can't teach either, do tech support.
Forget robot brains. Give crippled humans remote use of android bodies, and make them telepresence devices.
Regarding taking away jobs, for a long time I've had the feeling that it's not ethical to make a human do a job that a machine can do. Unfortunately, our society is poorly fit to that idea, plutocracy is not a path to a post-scarcity society, but to more plutocracy.
Bruce Perens.
There's interesting work going on at the moment to have robots with facial expressions interact with Autism Spectrum Disorder kids. In a nutshell, sometimes these kids find staring at a real human overwhelming, but a robot is ok, so a robot that can cycle through facial expressions is useful to allow these kids to learn "happy", "angry", "sad" faces and so on.
I wondered if this human-like robot would be too life-like for such an application - and TFA seems to confirm it.
Which might lead to interesting research into what degree of "lifelike-iness" is enough to block ASD kids from staring at a face. Or and even which specific facial features trigger the mental block.
If you want really weird, try lip reading what she's saying. I can't hear her and when I lip read her face I get nonsense. Very fast nonsense.