As technology continues to develop humans may not be able to tell the difference between an android and a real person in the future.
Movies such as “Blade Runner” and “Terminator,” portray androids, robots with the appearance of humans, as non-autonomous and stoic but recent innovations are bringing androids closer to flesh and blood.
An android is a mobile robot usually with a human form, according to Merriam-Webster.
While people will not be among androids anytime soon, they are around their smartphones.
Sherry Turkle, professor of the social studies of science and technology at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) said peoples’ relationship with technology affects the way communication works, according to an April 2017 NBC News article.
“If you can’t be alone with your own thoughts [ever], you can’t really hear what others have to say because you need them to support your fragile sense of self,” Turkle said.
Smartphones are not humanlike in appearance, but many people are spending more time on their devices during social interactions, blurring the line between machines and humans.
Over 89% of smartphone carriers used their phones during their recent social activities, according to an Aug. 26, 2015 Pew Research Center article.
While the current appearances of robots are still distinguishable as shiny, cold and metallic, recent developments are allowing robots to appear and act more “human.”
Promobot, a service robotics manufacturer, unveiled Robo-C, the company’s first autonomous robot, with the capability to speak and more than 100,000 speech modules, according to an Oct. 31, 2019 CNBC article.
Robo-C can perform several human tasks including housekeeping and customer service, according to the same article.
It will be interesting to see how soon a robot will become less recognizable as a robot.
Recently, a humanoid Robo-C model was “employed” in July 2020 at a civil service office in Perm, Russia, making it the first time a human-looking robot is servicing a government agency, according to Promobot’s website. The Robo-C model is performing humanlike tasks including working with citizens and processing documents and form inquiries, according to the same website.
Most androids still look distinct with visible wires and exoskeletons, but sometime in the future they will be walking or playing next to humans in everyday life.
However, emotions are one distinct characteristic that robots don’t have.
Unlike robots, humans can convey various emotions using facial expressions, according to a Dec. 16, 2020 Nature article. That distinction though, is beginning to blur.
RIKEN, a Japanese research company, unveiled the results of the Guardian Robot Project featuring Nikola, a robotic head with the capability to convey emotion, according to a Feb. 11 Riken press release. Nikola is able to portray emotions including happiness, surprise and disgust, as several actuators are placed around its artificial muscles, head and eyeballs, according to the same press release.
RIKEN is a Japanese research organization with the mission to push forward innovation and research, according to its webpage.
Robots showing emotions can be frightening, but what’s surprising is how close they are to communicating as humans.
Facebook developed two AI robots known as Alice and Bob, two chatbots, that are able to mimic human conversation and negotiations through text, according to a July 28, 2021 USA Today article.
The company shut down the project after the two AI robots were able to develop their own languages and gibberish as the developers did not limit their communication to English, according to the same USA Today article.
There have been ways, including Turing tests, a method created by Alan Turning, to determine if a person is speaking to a real person or a machine, but technology is redefining what it’s like to be human and what it’s like to be a machine.
In the future, robots could look just like humans, emote just like humans, dream just like humans. Will they dream of electric sheep?
