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."

Comments

Re:Does she run...

[binarylarry]

She run anyting you want human, 5 bitcoin.

Re: What's The Point?

[Anonymous Coward]

More like, there are 4 billions women who will never be even remotely interested in you. I bet not even a robot would shag a nerd. :)

Re:Does she run...

[binarylarry]

She fsck you long time.

Not any human, but many

[Zero__Kelvin]

Our goal is that she will be as conscious, creative and capable as any human

At first I thought this sounded ridiculous and then I remembered my last walk through Wal-Mart. Certainly not any human, but many isn't as far fetched as I was originally thinking.

Re:Does she run...

[K. S. Kyosuke]

Come on, there has to be at least a price advantage. Otherwise I don't see the point.

Better a robot than a Kardashian

[Jahmbo]

As long as the robot is more conscious, more capable and more creative than that tribe of genetic sludge I am all for robotics.

Customer Service

[spauldo]

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.

Re:Customer Service

[spauldo]

Not all ATMs have the service, and the service isn't available all the time.

Just look for the ATMs near the scantily clad loiterers at night. Use the ATM to withdraw cash, then hand it to the woman in the corset and fishnet stockings standing nearby. The better ones are self-cleaning and offer better privacy than the alley around the corner.

Re:Customer Service

[Kjella]

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.

I'm guessing you're somewhat like me, when you contact customer support it's because the answer isn't on the screen. There's no such option in the menus and the FAQ doesn't list the answer to your question. Roughly 99,9% of the time when I call customer service, I need an actual live person. But if you've ever worked first line help desk, the unfiltered common sense of the general public you'll know we're a rare breed. I've kinda accepted that the companies I deal with need to have an idiot filter to keep support costs down. If they're reliable and deliver as promised that is, the best customer service I get is the one where I don't have to call customer service much at all. That's really why I put up with it, if I had to call them regularly I wouldn't want do to business with them no matter how much they kissed ass.

Android bodies, human brains

[Bruce Perens]

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.

Autism and robots

[trickyb]

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.

Re:Uncanny

[ceoyoyo]

Japan has an aging population. They want humanoid robots to take care of the old people and make them feel loved while all the working age people are at work trying to pay for it all.

Try her lips

[pubwvj]

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.

Re:Try her lips

[phantomfive]

I'll tell you it's a really weird feeling to get an email with the subject "Try her lips"