eet the robot that pretends to listen
We’ve all done it.
Cornered at a party by
some bore talking about
his unimaginative app that
will “change the world.”
All seemingly convincing
excuses to leave have
already been used by the
rest of the group (who
were all there just a
second ago). The last
refuge of the rude
scoundrel — the
smartphone — is in your
jacket pocket in the
cloakroom all the way
across the room. So you
just have to suck it up
and simulate enthusiasm
for this guy’s pitch.
Through a series of pre-
prepared “oohs,” “aahs”
and contorted eye
movements, you
just might get away with
it.
Even those who spend a
large proportion of their
working lives pretending
to listen (VCs being some
of the most well-
rehearsed) must still feel
unconvincing from time to time. After all, human
beings are social animals. Faking it doesn’t come
naturally.
However, when you engage with a group of CommU
robots for the first time — the latest creation by
world-renowned Japanese roboticist, Dr. Hiroshi
Ishiguro — it becomes apparent pretty darn quickly
just how easy it is to feign interest in someone
else’s BS.
TechCrunch caught up with Dr. Ishiguro at the
Extension of Humanity event at SXSW Interactive
2016 in Austin, Texas. While he may not be a
household name, anyone with even a passing
interest in robotics and AI should be aware of just
how much Ishiguro, the director at the Intelligent
Robotics Laboratory at Osaka University in Japan,
has accomplished in his field.
Ishiguro has become synonymous with the creation
of eerily lifelike robots. He even designed his own
android doppelgänger in 2008. Named The Geminoid,
this apparent act of narcissism is but one android in
a growing army of human-like robots Ishiguro has
helped realize. But it would be remiss to overlook
his work as little more than a vanity project getting
out of hand. The key to Ishiguro’s talent for robotics
has always been the centrality he places on human
psychology within robotics engineering.
“AI isn’t just about
programming and
engineering skills,”
he says. “Equally
important for
roboticists is an
understanding of
human psychology
and behavior, not
just clever math and
novel design applications. One must find a balance
between the psychological and the scientific when
building androids.”
For Ishiguro, understanding cognitive science and
psychology greatly improves any engineer’s ability to
turn an artificial android into a convincing lifelike
replica.
The disingenu-bot
Ishiguro was in the Lone Star State to promote a
number of his products and prototypes, including a
small, rather unimpressive-looking robot named the
CommU (short for Communication Unity).
This isn’t one of Ishiguro’s most advanced AI
prototypes, but the CommU’s relatively simple design
demonstrates a key aspect of the modern human
condition: group dynamics. In doing so, however,
Ishiguro has also inadvertently shown how easy it is
to pretend to listen.
In its simplest terms, the CommU, which looks like a
creepy baby, is 11 inches in height, and ideally come
in pairs of two or more. Ishiguro is quick to point out
that the bigger the group, the more realistic the
communication exchange. The robots are
programmed to “talk” to each other on a number of
topics; when observing from afar, there does appear
to be a real conversation taking place. When the
group senses the presence of a human, they are
programmed to engage with them and involve them
in their exchange.
“If you have two or more robots having a
conversation with each other and suddenly a human
joins the group, the CommU will recognize the
human is talking and say something along the lines
of: ‘What do you think?’” he says. “When you answer,
the robots will say, ‘I see’ or ‘Interesting,’ then return
to their own ‘conversation.’ They don’t understand
what the human is saying. The CommU simply
demonstrates the dynamics of group
communication.”
But with two or more, a convincing communication
exchange in a group setting happens — even though
the robots cannot understand the human.