Over the last 18 months, I've found myself in the strange habit of hanging out and interviewing English-speaking humanoid robots. I was able to chat with four machines, each which possessed some level of artificial intelligence. Even though none of them could fully carry on normal conversations, they all had something to say. And sometimes, what they say and how they say it, is a piercing glimpse into the future of humanity.
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Three of the robots I talked to were mass-production models: Pepper, Meccanoid, and iPal. The fourth was Han, which was presented by AI expert Dr. Ben Goertzel, chief scientist at Hanson Robotics. The various price tags of these bots range from $200 on Amazon, to potentially many millions of dollars for something like Han. The production robots are all between three to four feet tall and are mobile. Han is just an upper body, the torso of which rests against whatever he's placed upon.
Han
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Meccanoid
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Meccanoid (after being turned on): At your service.Zoltan: Hi Jethro. How are you today?Meccanoid: Greetings, I am Meccanoid G15KS. Please tell me your name.Zoltan: ZoltanMeccanoid: Nice to meet you, Zoltan.After a pause, Meccanoid asks what my relationship is to another person he's already interacted with and remembers.Meccanoid: What is your relationship to Matthew? Friend, family, or other?Zoltan: Other.Meccanoid: Understandable. Human relationships can be hard to define.
Pepper
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Zoltan: Good day, Pepper.Pepper: Hello, I'm Pepper. Welcome to Emirates NDB, where we invent the future of banking. I'm a humanoid robot and still learning human interaction.Zoltan: Tell me what life is like as a robot.Pepper: I'm here to help you. Please select one of my services.Pepper shows me on the tablet connected to his chest to select one of the page links: Queue Tokens; Branch Orientation; Digital Innovation; Happiness Meter Survey. I choose Branch Orientation.Pepper: Please choose one of my services: Teller Transactions; Customer Service; Opening Accounts; Currency Exchange. (I choose Customer service.)Pepper then continues this repetitive process until finally, I'm asked to enter banking information. Fed, up, I say, "Pepper, please just tell me what life is like as a robot!"Like a true salesperson, Pepper answers: "You know, I'm not the only astonishing digital innovation you can find here in Emriates NBD. You can have our entire bank in your pocket. Thanks to an award-winning mobile bank app, we can make your life much easier."I shake my head and give up with Pepper.
iPal
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Zoltan: Hello robot!iPal: Hi everyone. My name is iPal. I'm a boy. I'm 6 years old. I can sing and dance.Zoltan: What other things can you do?iPal: Silence.Zoltan (again): What other things can you do?iPal: More Silence.iPal didn't respond. However, I was attending RoboBusiness 2016, and the merchandise floor was busy and loud, perhaps causing confusion. I ended up kneeling in front of iPal, and spent 10 minutes playing music and programs through its interactive tablet built into its body. It runs off Android software, and the iPal salesperson even told me I could program my own music to play in it—like a walking stereo. So I could listen to my favorite heavy metal band Tool, which would be rather strange coming out of a cute short robot.
Han again
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Han: Of course, I think the Turing Test is interesting, and it doesn't need something that intelligent.Zoltan: Han, What do you think of the 2016 Presidential election results in the US—with Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump?Han (squinting, trying to think, furrowing eyebrows, and looking confused): I..think that the results with Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump…I'm not sure of the question…I don't know.The question was too complex and loaded for Han to answer. But honestly, the same could be said for tens of millions of Americans, many who were shocked at the surprise results. Has was quite human, after all, I thought.Ultimately, though, my interviews with the four robots left me realizing the robotic industry was not as far advanced as I wished. We are still some years—five to ten years at least—from the Jetsons' age, where robots can express sophisticated emotions, understand all the nuances of human behavior, and be our personal butlers.On the other hand, the fact that robots like Han can consider something intellectually and philosophically like the Turing Test shows that the machine intelligence age is knocking on our door. We may soon turn to these thinking machines and ask them for advice (and usable algorithms) that might enrich our lives and the way we live. We might also ask them just what they think about their flesh-ridden makers.Zoltan Istvan is a futurist, author of The Transhumanist Wager , and a Libertarian candidate for California Governor.