Next Fest: Cuddly Robots and Android Sex
Posted by: chalupa | From: October 2, 2006
I spent this rainy Sunday in NYC checking out Wired Magazine's Next Fest. As a staunch environmentalist, I came for the hybrid vehicles and fuel cell technology. But as a total dork, I spent the entire day in the Robot Row--the tiny corner of the Javits Center packed with borderline creepy demonstrations of robots...doing the robot. (This was the on-going joke of some of the demos, and for me personally, it never got old).
Meet Alex Hubo. He has Albert Einstein's head with white hair hitting just below his wrinkly chin and a 'stache to match. His eyebrows are raised in bemusement, but his soft face can also show anger, surprise, and happiness. With a body like a Star Wars Space Trooper, Alex Hubo is the "first-ever walking robot with an expressive face," according to his creators at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology.
I chatted with David Hanson, the President of Hanson Robotics: Humanizing Technology and a graduating PhD student at Houston. He made the face for Alex Hubo along with his own robotic invention, Jules—an androgynous bald robot that sort of facially resembles Verbal from The Usual Suspects. In his cargo black and white army camouflage pants and FuBu-esque white bomber jacket with faux-fur trim, Jules stared back and reacted to the crowds of people ohing and ahing at a robot ohing and ahing back at them.
"We're creating conversational characters as an art form," says Hanson. With computers and huge memory storage, robots can "learn your face, name, talk to you, build memories, remember how it felt when you talked, have feelings." I asked if we're finally entering a Jetsonian Period and whether Rosie the Jetson's maid will soon be available at Wal Mart.
"Entertainment, the cutesy stuff, is easier for us." Hanson explained. "Rosie from the Jetsons requires more creative intelligence to wash the dishes. Right now A.I. is art, entertainment. Soon you can have A.I. that tells stories, tutors, rides the vacuum cleaner, it's like having a Pixar character alive in your living room, a member of the family that can store memory and forge relationships."
If you want to interact with Jules, go to www.personalityforge.com and type in "JULES"--it will get to know you and you in turn can get a sense of it's personality.
How soon will robots live among us like humans? Today, in terms of A.I. in comparison to the history of film, we have the zoetrope. Tomorrow? Spielberg. Hanson says that the technology for A.I. is advancing at an accelerated speed—cameras for the eyes, memory storage and other software is rapidly improving.
According to Hanson, "As A.I. become more nuanced, it can actually achieve consciousness. General Strong Intelligence--integration of improved intelligence pieces [technology] and having it solve problems creatively with human flexibility is 15-20 years away by optimistic standards."
Can you imagine what robots will do to the sex industry? Could the US Department of Defense, Al Gore, and Steve Jobs and Wozniak the Wizard have predicted that everyone from Congressmen (Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL)) to lonely freelance writers in Brooklyn, engage in internet sex? What if one day the back of the Village Voice is filled with advertisements of voluptuous androids in suggestive poses?
Which brings me to the nameless but nonetheless lovely "actroid der" by Kokoro--an android that looks like a beautiful, young Japanese woman who changes outfits as much as Barbie. She can play receptionist, English maid, waitress, and kittenish charmer in a full black body suit with F-me boots to match.
She greets you, plays with your kids, her hands have life-lines, and she's even sarcastic to boot. Ask her if she's a robot and her soft, sweet voice will suddenly turn mechanical and say, "YES-I-AM-A-ROBOT." Funny girl. Great for cocktail parties and possibly other, ahem, things. She could very well be the Pandora box of the A.I. market. Investor beware--pull your stock out of blow up dolls now.
Android sex aside, the Cuddle Monster award goes to my favorite pet darling of Robot Row: Paro, the warm and fuzzy baby seal that whimpers like a new born puppy at the gentle stroke of your hand on it's plush, white fur. According to the creators of the robotic harp seals at Japan's National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Paro has many therapeutic uses, including reducing anxiety in the elderly and sick.
But with it's hugability and portability, Paro could very well be in the next five years another celebrity accessory as high profile as Tinkerbelle Hilton in a Louise Vuitton handbag. If you can't club them, cuddle them.
