[TRACE] There are lots of different types of robots; insect robots, animal robots, jellyfish
robots, toy robots, cooking robots, military robots..sex robots?
An android is a human-like robot...it looks like a human, talks like a human, it acts
like a human.
Androids are the pinnacle of robotics and artificial intelligence.
Successfully building an android is essentially like creating synthetic life in our own image.
So how close are we to building an android?
Right now there are only a handful of robots that are anywhere close to passing themselves
off as human.
Not only do these ‘bots look and feel weird, their artificial intelligence systems... aren’t
that intelligent.
But roboticists and computer engineers are working on humanoid, intelligent robots all
over the world.
Why?
Because who doesn’t want a robot cook, butler, or driver?
But making science-fiction a reality is way harder than it looks.
Even just attempting to make robots look and move like humans is hard.
[SUBBARAO KAMBHAMPATI]: AI has gotten very smart, in specific aspects most recently in
perception.
Well you have speech recognition, as well as image recognition software on your cell
phones.
One of the pieces that AI is not still very good at is things like grasping and manipulation
of physical objects.
Things like cooking actually requires enough fine motion skills that it will be at least
need 10 years.
[RUZENA BAJCSY] You have now more sophisticated robots that can pick and move around and help
you, more as a complement to the human capabilities rather than replacement.
[TRACE] So robots can’t physically cook you dinner and clean up afterward - yet.
Even though most of the robots that you see online are more like this, we’re not actually
that far from robotic limbs that perform basic movements.
In the last 10 years, bionic prosthetic arms have come a long way.
Many models have decent grip strength and individual finger articulation.
But, they’re still controlled by people.
[RUZENA BAJCSY] We don't fully understand how our muscles work.
It's a complicated system that robotic technology can help to unravel.
[TRACE] So, that’s where we are with movement, but right now that’s kind of the best we’ve
got.
And when it come to the looks department, we’re really far away.
Synthetic robot skin is made of things like silicone and polyurethane.
It still can’t bounce back or feel things.
As you probably know, it doesn’t even look real.
Realistic, synthetic skin will need to be sensitive to different tactile experiences
like heat and cold, and no one is even close.
As for a humanoid robot with clever AI, a robotic skeleton, artificial limbs and flawless
skin?
That could take decades, or longer.
[RUZENA BAJCSY] We’ll have better sensors, sensor meaning cameras, smaller, higher resolution,
faster, detecting what's out there, but it's not only visual.
It will be auditory.
It will be tactile, fingers, hands.
[TRACE] Maybe we’re overthinking this, do we really want or need robots to be humanoid,
like the replicants in Blade Runner?
Or would we be happy with them being out of sight, like the disembodied voice on Star
Trek?
[SUBBARAO KAMBHAMPATI] if you want a household robot that walks from one room to the other,
then you’re probably looking for something that looks humanoid, but if on the other hand
you’re looking for a smart home, and food just appears in front of you, that’s a smart
home not a smart robot.
In terms of the challenges, they’re the same, it’s as to which one you prefer is
really an issue.
[TRACE] What it’s really about is the task.
Androids are great for working around the house, but several companies are already proving
we don’t necessarily need a humanoid robot to drive a car.
Perhaps the more important obstacle to overcome isn’t physicality or looks.
If we really want intelligent robots to work for us, we’re going to need them to learn
to work with us.
[SUBBARAO KAMBHAMPATI] To be an effective assistant you really need to be able to read
the other person’s mind.
That’s the whole entire direction, that’s actually happening right now.
And, in fact, there is this whole saying that the reason humans have the huge brains that
we have is not to run away from the tigers in the savanna, but to be with each other.
[TRACE] So what we need is to find a way to not only make robots act human but, for them
to fully understand and even anticipate what’s on our minds.
And... is that what we really mean by intelligence?
What is intelligence anyway?
How do you test it?
How do you know when a thing is intelligent?
[SUBBARAO KAMBHAMPATI]...intelligence involves things like perception, things like ability
to manipulate the world, emotional intelligence, social intelligence.
[RUZENA BAJCSY] That process of how you deal with the never seen before, never heard before,
never experienced before, and still you somehow know how to react is something that we don't
understand.
[SUBBARAO KAMBHAMPATI] it’ll be at least 25 years or more before we reach human level
intelligence and we do reach human level intelligence, that we will have also passed the Turing test.
[TRACE] Alan Turing, is often referred to as the father of modern computing.
He said “a computer would deserve to be called intelligent if it could deceive a human
into believing that it was human.”
But anyone who’s ever chatted with a bot online knows they’re not ... great.
They don’t always understand, they’re repetitive; they don’t respond in the way
a human would -- or they know things that no human would know off the top of their heads!
[SUBBARAO KAMBHAMPATI] there was this one human being who knew so much about all the
arcana of Shakespeare that people essentially decided that it must be a machine because
nobody with a real life would know so much about Shakespeare.
[TRACE] Robots are a comin’, and while they may not be in humanoid form, they will be
replacing the work of humans across our society.
Blue collar, white collar, nobody is safe.
[SUBBARAO KAMBHAMPATI] The reality is that anything routine, whether it is cognitive
or non-cognitive is going to be replaced.
So, for example, truck driving is something that within five years it’s probably going
to be gone.
[TRACE] Radiologists: you got 5 years.
Psychologists: we have an app for that.
Sports and economics reporters: Too late, computers already do that job.
Paralegals: Bye!
[TRACE] So, how close are we to creating androids?
Smart AI systems already exist and we’re a decade away from building robots that move
like us, though, aesthetically we’ve still got some major challenges to overcome.
There’s really no incentive to put all the pieces of the intelligent humanoid robot puzzle
together, at least, not yet.
But in reality, we’re not building toward a future where one type of artificially intelligent
robot will exist.
For better or for worse, we’re heading toward a world where a whole fleet of specialized
robots will be developed, each taking over its own little world.
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So at the moment AI isn’t great, but part of that might be that AI just doesn’t have
its own memories… so what if we gave an AI the ability to remember?
To think back?
Find out in this video we made, here.
And thanks so much for watching Seeker.