Clare Townhill

'The Three Laws of Robotics'

A much needed antidote to the preceding post.

Valley of the Dolls

David Levy was in conversation last night with Bill Thompson from the BBC at the ICA. The discussion: Love, Sex + Robots. It was weird but very, very, interesting. I also left feeling that maybe it wasn't an unfeasible proposal either, not least because of what is already occuring in Japan and South Korea in 'Doll Brothels'. No, I'm not joking:

Elegant, feminine, and lively at all times… High-quality robot is available at a reasonable price with varieties of costumes to choose from for more opportunities to make better use of it.

No, I haven't ever seen this much 'lively robot'.

Roombaphilia

Duke is careering noisily across a living room floor resplendent in the dark blue and white colours of Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. He's no student but a disc-shaped robotic vacuum cleaner called the Roomba. Not only have his owners dressed him up, they have also given him a name and gender.

Duke is not alone. Such behaviour is common, and takes myriad forms according to a survey of almost 400 Roomba owners, conducted late last year by Ja-Young Sung and Rebecca Grinter, who research human-computer interaction at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta.

"Dressing up Roomba happens in many ways," Sung says. People also often gave their robots a name and gender, according to the survey (see Diagram) which Sung presented at the Human-Robot Interaction conference earlier this month in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

The iRobot site has a special 'owners' page for stories and anecdotes. These are my two favourites:

Rescue Roomba
My daughter bought us this as a Xmas gift last year and my husband and I both agree that it is the best gift we have ever had. Four months ago I had a hip replacement with all the restrictions that involves and my husband, at 82 years old, did all the housework. He cannot praise Roomba enough to all our friends and says if the house catches on fire, I will have to fend for myself as he will only rescue Roomba!! Thank you so much for isuch a wonderful invention. You are a blessing to the older generation.
— Alma D.

Mating Ritual
I have just bought a Roomba, I know everyone says how well it cleans the floor, and they are not wrong, I was very surprised at just how clean everywhere is after Roomba has done it's thing. I've had my new pet for about a week now and some of it's behaviors are hilarious, first of all, I opened all the doors to all my rooms just to see how Roomba would cope (very well I must say !) I had not quite opened the bathroom door properly so when roomba went in, and tried to get out, it bumped into the door and locked itself in, I know we all like our privacy in the smallest room, seem Roomba feels the same ! The next thing just had me laughing out loud, I also bought a docking station which I placed in the corner of the room, the carpet is a little uneven there so Roomba was having a tiny bit of difficulty in docking first time, but it did not give up, it backed off and tried again a few more times, and then docked successfully, I could not help think it was taking part in a mating ritual with the docking station, Roomba would climb onto it's partner as if trying to mount it, and just like real life, didn't get it right first time, but persistance paid off in the end. Also when Roomba undocks and reverses off it's docking station, those little reversing bleeps are a very nice touch, A robot that cleans the floor is great enough in itself, but this robot cleans the floor and has a sense of humour built in, what more could you want?
— Paul

Indeed Paul. Indeed.

iRobot
MyRoomBud: Fashion for Roombas

Soul in the Machine

Lots of robotty happenings in the news, on the web, and in the world at large. Here are a few to keep the synapses oiled:

Virtual pets can learn just like babies

"SIT," says the man. The dog tilts its head but does nothing. "Sit," the man repeats.

The dog lies down. "No!" the man admonishes.

Then, unable to get the dog to sit, the man decides to teach it by example. He sits down himself.

"I'm sitting. Try sitting," he says. The dog cocks its head attentively, folds its hind legs under its body and sits. "Good!" says the man.

No, it's not a rather bizarre way to teach your pet new tricks. It is a demonstration a synthetic character in a virtual world being controlled by an autonomous artificial intelligence (AI) program, which will be released to inhabitants of virtual worlds like Second Life later this year.

'Robot Arms Race Underway' expert warns

Governments around the world are rushing to develop military robots capable of killing autonomously without considering the legal and moral implications, warns a leading roboticist. But another robotics expert argues that robotic soldiers could perhaps be made more ethical than human ones.

Over 4000 semi-autonomous robots are already deployed by the US in Iraq, says Sharkey, and other countries – including several European nations, Canada, South Korea, South Africa, Singapore and Israel – are developing similar technologies.

Virtual child passes mental milestone

A virtual child controlled by artificially intelligent software has passed a cognitive test regarded as a major milestone in human development. It could lead to smarter computer games able to predict human players' state of mind.

Children typically master the "false belief test" at age 4 or 5. It tests their ability to realise that the beliefs of others can differ from their own, and from reality.

The creators of the new character – which they called Eddie – say passing the test shows it can reason about the beliefs of others, using a rudimentary "theory of mind".

"Today's [video game] characters have no genuine autonomy or mental picture of who you are," researcher Selmer Bringsjord of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, told New Scientist.

And robots could potentially love me... Attending the ICA talk by David Levy on the 14th with Emma 'El Nog' Norman and a couple of other nice people. Let me know if you'd like to come:

14 April 2008

David Levy, an expert on artificial intelligence, comes to the ICA to argue that we are headed inexorably towards a society where human affection and human desire are extended into psychological and physical relationships with robots. Love and sex with robots, he argues, is a natural extension of the relationships which we have already cultivated first with pets, then with virtual pets, then with virtual avatars in Second Life.

Post title nicked with neither apology nor remorse from this great article in the Spring Edition of Intelligent Life.

 

Can a Robot Commit A War Crime?

There have been some really interesting stories in the news this week about developments in the automation of warfare and some of the moral issues that flank robot war. Some of the key concerns surround the potential for unforeseeable actions taken by 'intelligent' machines as their capabilities transcend their programming and their systems become autonomous:

Governments around the world are rushing to develop military robots capable of killing autonomously without considering the legal and moral implications, warns a leading roboticist. But another robotics expert argues that robotic soldiers could perhaps be made more ethical than human ones... Scientists are concerned about the prospect of having robots decide for themselves when to "pull the trigger". Currently, a human is always involved in decisions of this nature. But the Pentagon is nearly 2 years into a research programme aimed at having robots identify potential threats without human help.

NewScientistTech: Robot arms race underway
NewScientistTech: Military Turing test would make war robots legal