Artificial Intelligence - What Is RoboThespian?

 

RoboThespian is an interactive robot created by Engineered Arts in England.

It is described as a humanoid, which means it was meant to look like a person.

The initial version of the robot was released in 2005, with improvements following in 2007, 2010, and 2014.

The robot is human-sized, with a plastic face, metal arms, and legs that can move in a variety of directions.

With its digital voice, the robot's video camera eyes can track a person's movements and infer his or her age and mood.

All RoboThespians, according to Engineered Arts' website, come with a touchscreen that enables users to personalize and manage their experience with the robot, including the ability to animate it and modify its language.

Users may also operate it remotely via a tablet, however since the robot can be preprogrammed, no live operator is necessary.

RoboThespian was created to engage with people in public places including colleges, museums, hotels, trade events, and exhibits.

The robot is utilized as a tour guide in venues like science museums.

It can scan QR codes, identify facial expressions, react to gestures, and communicate with people through a touchscreen kiosk.

RoboThespian may also amuse in addition to these practical uses.

It's jam-packed with songs, gestures, welcomes, and first impressions.

RoboThespian has also performed in front of an audience.

It has the ability to sing, dance, perform, read from a script, and communicate with emotion.

It can respond to audiences and forecast their emotions since it is equipped with cameras and face recognition.

According to Engineered Arts, it may have a "vast variety of facial expression" as an actor and "can be precisely displayed with the delicate subtlety, generally only achieved by human performers" (Engineered Arts 2017).

During the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2015, the drama Spillikin had its world debut at the Pleasance Theatre.

In a love tale about a husband who constructs a robot for his wife to keep her company after he dies, RoboThespian appeared with four human performers.

The play toured the United Kingdom from 2016 to 2017, receiving critical praise.

Companies who purchase a RoboThespian may tailor the robot's content to meet their specific requirements.

The appearance of the robot's face and other design elements may be changed.

It can feature a projected face, grippable hands, and moveable legs.

RoboThespians are now placed at NASA Kennedy Center in the United States, the National Science and Technology Museum in Spain, and the Copernicus Science Centre in Poland, among others.

University of Central Florida, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University College London, and University of Barcelona are among the academic institutions where the robot may be found.

~ Jai Krishna Ponnappan

Find Jai on Twitter | LinkedIn | Instagram

You may also want to read more about Artificial Intelligence here.

See also: 

Autonomous and Semiautonomous Systems; Ishiguro, Hiroshi.

References & Further Reading:

Engineered Arts. 2017. “RoboThespian.” Engineered Arts Limited. www.engineeredarts.co.uk.

Hickey, Shane. 2014. “RoboThespian: The First Commercial Robot That Behaves Like a Person.” The Guardian, August 17, 2014. www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/aug/17/robothespian-engineered-arts-robot-human-behaviour.

Artificial Intelligence - How Is AI Represented In The Film 'Ex Machina'?

 

Ex Machina is a 2014 film that reimagines themes from Mary Shelley's 1818 novel Frankenstein in light of recent breakthroughs in artificial intelligence.

The film, like Shelley's book, portrays the narrative of a creator who is blinded by his own arrogance and the created who rebels against him.

Alex Garland wrote and directed the film, which tells the narrative of Caleb Smith (Domhnall Gleeson), a software firm employee who is invited to the lavish and secluded house of the business's CEO, Nathan Bateman (Oscar Isaac), under the guise of having won a contest.

Bateman's true goal is for Smith to conduct a Turing Test to Ava, a humanoid robot (played by Alicia Vikander).

Ava has a robotic torso but a human face and hands in terms of look.

Despite the fact that Ava has previously passed a preliminary Turing Test, Bateman has something more complicated in mind to put her talents to the test.

He lets Smith engage with Ava in order to see whether Smith can connect to her despite the fact that she is manufactured.

Ava is confined to an apartment on Bateman's property that she is unable to leave, and she is continuously watched.

She tells Smith that she can cause power shortages, allowing them to communicate quietly without Bateman's interference.

Smith is increasingly drawn to Ava, and she tells him that she feels the same way, and that she wants to experience the world outside the complex.

Smith discovers Bateman's plan to "upgrade" Ava, causing her to lose her memories and personality.

Smith grows more worried about Bateman's actions at this period.

Bateman is inebriated to the point of passing out, and he is violent to Ava and his servant, Kyoko.

When Bateman is drunk enough to pass out one night, Smith steals his access card and hacks into past surveillance video, revealing evidence of Bateman abusing and disturbing prior AIs.

He also learns that Kyoko is an artificial intelligence.

Suspecting that he, too, is an AI, he slices into his arm to hunt for robotic components, but there are none.

When Smith runs into Ava again, he tells her what he's witnessed.

She begs for his assistance in escaping.

They design a scheme in which Smith would get Bateman intoxicated to the point of passing out, reprogram the property's security, and then he and Ava will flee the compound together.

Bateman informs Smith that he surreptitiously recorded the previous chat between Smith and Ava on a battery-powered camera, and that the actual test was to see whether Ava could dupe Smith into falling for her and tricking him into assisting her in her escape.

According to Bateman, this was Ava's genuine IQ test.

When Bateman notices Ava has disconnected the power and is about to go, he knocks Smith unconscious and rushes over to stop her.

Kyoko assists Ava in injuring Bateman with a grievous stab wound, but Kyoko and Ava are injured in the process.

Ava is repaired using Bateman's earlier AI models, and she assumes the appearance of a human lady.

She abandons Smith in the complex and flees on the chopper that was intended for him.

The last shot depicts her vanishing into the throngs of a large metropolis.

~ Jai Krishna Ponnappan

You may also want to read more about Artificial Intelligence here.

See also: 

Eliezer Yudkowsky.

Further Reading:

Dupzyk, Kevin. 2019. “How Ex Machina Foresaw the Weaponization of Data.” Popular Mechanics, January 16, 2019. https://www.popularmechanics.com/culture/movies/a25749315/ex-machina-double-take-data-harvesting/.

Saito, Stephen. 2015. “Intelligent Artifice: Alex Garland’s Smart, Stylish Ex Machina.” MovieMaker Magazine, April 9, 2015. https://www.moviemaker.com/intelligent-artifice-alex-garlands-smart-stylish-ex-machina/.

Thorogood, Sam. 2017. “Ex Machina, Frankenstein, and Modern Deities.” The Artifice, June 12, 2017. https://the-artifice.com/ex-machina-frankenstein-modern-deities/.