Does he have a favourite robot? “I actually do. 64117. There’s a kind of leaderboard system that tracks each drive unit [a droid in Amazon lingo, Ed.], and I follow them all. 64117 has travelled only 164 metres the whole time it’s been here. It’s the laziest drive we’ve got. It’s got the work/life balance worked out.”
Doing backflips in a nuclear contaminated facility
You can teach robots things in VR
[…] actually you can teach robots things in VR, such that the robot experiences everything the way that it will experience it when doing the job itself.
(source)
Ishiguro believes that since we’re hardwired to interact with and place our faith in humans, the more humanlike we can make a robot appear, the more open we’ll be to sharing our lives with it.
Be a Self Driving Car
Impersonate a self-driving car and experience how complicated that problem is.
(Probably also the best use of VR I’ve ever seen so far.)
Sex robot sent for repairs after being molested at tech fair – BBC Three
Sex robot sent for repairs after being molested at tech fair – BBC Three
Or what will be known as “Ars Electronica’s problem with the representation of women”.
No one can tell if this is a robot or human
No one can tell if this is a robot or human
Game Conference attendees are easily fooled. It’s not a bug, it’s a feature. And calling an Android “Cyberlife” should be a contract termination clause for any Marketing employee.
Robot slurs for humans
« It’s much sexier to call something a robot than call something a dishwasher »
This nuance is important, because “robot” is a powerful word. It is at once something that makes people uncomfortable (killer robots, job-stealing robots, etc.) and that makes them feel nice (Kuri the extremely endearing companion robot). “The word robot generates a lot of attention and fascination and sometimes fear,” says Darling. “You can use it to get people’s attention. I mean, it’s much sexier to call something a robot than call something a dishwasher.”