When I was growing up (in Ghana), the popular conception of robots were funnily-shaped pneumatic little machines that rolled along with blinking lights and imitated speech in a tinny mechanical voice. As I grew older, I learnt about industrial robots with long, jointed arms that work on assembly lines in factories, such as in car manufacturing.
What is common to this category of robots is that they were essentially computers whose capabilities are limited to the processing of logical commands. They are programmable and do exactly what they are programmed to do, and no more. These robots lack the ability to recognise emotion, to empathise, to socialise with people in ways that we identify as human interaction.
This inability to socialise is history now with the invention of Sophia, the first social robot. She can hold intelligent conversations on a number of topics, show and recognise emotion and interact in very human ways. Watch Sophia being interviewed here. Indeed, Sophia has been granted citizenship in Saudi Arabia and she has been appointed as the UNDP's Innovation Champion for Asia and the Pacific.
Sophia will have a profound impact on our definition of what it means to be human. Probably the biggest difference between humans and machines was our sentient nature. However, when we begin to have super-intelligent machines that also have the capacity for emotion (feelings), then the issues of rights and morality are extended further than ever before. Will artificial humans, capable of loving, have the same rights (in marriage, etc) as natural humans? If they rise into positions of authority, will social robots develop and seek to enforce their own moral code, different from what humans originally programmed them with? What will be the role of (religious) faith in this brave new world?
Not all robots will exist physically, independent of humans like Sophia does. Some robots are designed to be Exoskeletons for human limbs and torsos. Originally, these were conceived to solve problems of disability but the current trend seems to be towards giving humans superability; think Iron Man in real life!
Comfort clothing is now a thing. This is a whole new class of wearable robots that assist and extend human capability in performing tasks, so that we are more comfortable, physically, in performing blue collar tasks. The Ekso Vest is currently worn by workers in Ford's factories to offer physical support while performing their tasks, which leads to less physical exertion and the worker feels less tired at the end of his shift.
As almost everyone knows, autonomous mobility is here and it is expected to be the (near) future of cars. Tesla vehicles can already navigate their way in autonomous mode. But the future of transportation itself, as we know it, is in danger of being disrupted in a most innovative way. Robotic Avatars are being built to project the human senses over considerable distance, thereby eliminating the need to travel in person. All Nippon Airways (ANA) is sponsoring a $10 million prize to the first team to build and demonstrate a working model of a Robotic Avatar that can project the human senses and gestures over a 100 km distance. Imagine being able to touch, smell, feel and taste stuff 100 km (or more) away from your physical location. This ability to port our gestures and senses into robots in remote locations and interact with people and things in that remote location should impact travel within the next 10 years.
I'll discuss Artificial Intelligence and Augmented Intelligence in my next post in this series.
