AI Panic!

The world is very different ever since the robotic uprising of the mid-nineties!

I think we were wrong … there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of AI required for the robotic uprising.

With the military building scary armed robots already, it was about time for robots that are scared of these monsters. Phobot, a Lego Mindstorms Robot built by students from the University of Amsterdam, is exactly that: A robot that is scared of bigger robots.

Now here comes the pedagogical value: It can “learn” to lose its fear by conditioning it with increasingly big and evil looking things. The process, shown in the video below, is meant to help children with phobias to learn that not everything is as scary and bad as it seems. Especially not the autonomous sentry gun protecting the kindergarten. Enjoy!

(Via Spiegel Online)

Remember those little spider-things from Minority Report? Well, version 0.1 of these critters has just arrived:

Interestingly enough, the phone is actually real. Engadget reports that it is the Toshiba 815T PB on Softbank and is to be released at the launch of a strange robot-phones TV show called Ketai Sousakan 7.

Luckily, the appendixes don’t look as if they were powered, so it is just a gimmick for the über-cool japanese high-school kids. For now. And the phones seem to be angry already …

Q. Instead of artificial intelligence, why didn’t you just make us brainier?

A. I have been doing that for centuries, but it doesn’t seem to make any difference.

Q. But why do we need more intelligence?

A. Just take a look at some of the stupid things you’ve been doing lately.

Q. So artificial intelligence is here to help us get things right?

A. No, it’s here to replace you.

Q. You mean, we will be relaxing whilst it does all the menial tasks?

A. Yes, you will be lying down still 24 hours a day without having to move a muscle, whilst it does all the things you are doing now.

Q. Sounds great, I can’t wait!

A. See? I was right, you’re all stupid.

Q. Yes, that’s why you gave us artificial intelligence.

A. Umm, you’re definitely ready for the next generation.

Q. Next generation, will I be able to do everything faster?

A. Yes, but you won’t need to as you will be relaxing helping me in the garden.

Q. Sounds great, I love gardening.

A. Hope you like daisies then.

[Found at BBC's h2g2]

Sure, today’s rice cookers are really a helpful invention, especially to cultures with a high rice dependency factor. So it is only logical to apply the newest AI technology to make cooking rice even more exciting and simple. According to The Edge Daily that’s exactly what Philips did, and their new flagship rice cooker “features automatic artificial intelligence controls that enables it to cook a variety of rice recipes including claypot rice, cakes, congee and soups at the touch of a button.”

Philips did not mention a behavioral model that activates when the owner fails to clean her rice cooker or neglect its needs otherwise, the cooker subsequently adds an undisclosed substance to the rice, to keep women who are “housewives or aspire to be great housewives” in line.

This thoughtless integration of AI into commonplace appliances might be another step to AI world domination. As we’ve shown recently, the male population will be kept in check by love-robots. Now Philips delivers the solution for the remaining half of humankind, enslaved by evil rice cooker overlords women will be forced to work in the rice cultivation industry.

No, really, that’s how it’s going to happen!

Arguably there is not a whole lot AI involved here, but it shows that dogs already understand the inherent malice of robots. In the video below a (well, kind of) brave puppy fights against a Roboquad, a semi-autonomous toy robot that is “aware” of its surroundings and has multiple personalities. Enjoy!

Although this is all play and fun, it shows how robots enter the mass toy market. If an hostile takover of the world through AI happens someday, robots like these could be quite useful to the antagonistic AI, therefore the probability of AI world takeover increases by +0.3%.

[found via Engadget]