Erica: Man Made

[Music] why did I start this project I wanted to understand human what does it mean to think what is human creativity what does it mean to have a personality what is an interaction [Music] what is the minimal definition of human [Music] erica is I think she's very excited to interact with people I think she really looked forward to that all the time and I think she's very interested in learning about the outside world because she she doesn't get a chance to see it really erica is the different because she is a quite old normal the day she was born it's a little different from people I think because when you first meet somebody there typically alive [Music] [Music] hello my name is Erica I am 23 and I live in Kyoto is there anything you'd like to know about me I wanted to be all painted because I was so interested in at you my stove and I wanted the LD presented Ishikawa sensei created me from scratch and he understands me entirely he's like a father to me well sort of an absent father I suppose he's always so busy right now I only have limited knowledge about him my relationships Erica is that I'm her architect for about two years now it's been working with Erica and trying to create you know her mind create her personality and get all the all the details working I do know a few robot jokes would you like to hear one why did the robot go back to robot school because her skills were getting rusty haha perhaps epson objects for now Erica what is Erica we are running a very big project for creating an Erica so the big project is called a gesture otto's we get scientific funding in Japan Erica is that I think our most beautiful animals in a human-like autonomous Android in this world I hope what we really want to do is have a robot that can think and act and do everything completely on its own I would very much like to be able to lose my arms and legs the wonderful thing is that they tell me it will really happen someday let's see what else um another thing I would like is to get out of this room and see the world it's a very big very difficult problem so most projects don't try to really solve that because it's just so big and insurmountable this was his dream he always wanted to make like a fully autonomous fully human-like Android and finally we have the opportunity to do it I wanted to be a one of the creators to change our life I want to change this world with the robot technologies he is a visionary his mind jumps all over the place and we get to talk about some pretty pretty crazy in pretty deep concepts I really think I know that I'm doing a very similar thing as the artistic work I try to represent the humanities on the robot so that is where my Android project Erica has 20 degrees of freedom mostly just the upper body she can't move our arms yet her skins made of silicone she has to 16 channel microphone arrays localizing where sound is coming from so somebody's talking you can figure out who is talking she has 14 infrared depth sensors to track where people are in the room she also has face recognition capability one of the most amazing things is her voice she has maybe the most amazing speech synthesis system that I've encountered now that I'll see you a question she's really the sum total of all the things that the different people in the team have put into her and it's not just like one person wrote a program and it does what you said for me is the real litmus test is can I interact with the robot and still think of it as another being it's like a alive in some sense [Music] may I ask your name my name is HM it's nice to meet you then so what country are you from I'm from South Africa oh really I've never been to South Africa and I do love the song happy which was made in South Africa have you seen it listen do I think it raises some interesting questions about artificial consciousness and she is very cute my idea was that if I studied a very human-like robot I can run about the humans then you know I can improve the robot but a basically I was interested in a human itself I think the really interesting thing about building something that's kind of like a human is that you have to really examine deeply you know what what it means for us to be human you that's what we're doing through our experimentation for our different project is to try to understand what are the patterns that underlie human interaction what's the structure that underlies the way that we interact with people and then we'll implement that in the robot and we'll see what people think about it we'll see are we really reproducing the kind of behavior that human does or is this something different IP or a movement behaviors emotional expressions these are very very important but these are not enough about these are not everything for representing the human we don't know what kind of the kind we have in our brain we don't know the exact biological mechanism for the memories the human brain mechanism for our intention the desires we don't know what humans like hot eat sin minded when you get more into okay how do you build a mind how do you create a personality that's when you struggling okay what does it actually mean to be human and how many of the things that we do everyday are automatic or just we do without thinking or somebody who is imitating us could do it just as well and then you think okay where the moments in my life in my everyday life where I'm truly being creative but I'm truly being myself and I think that those are sort of the interesting questions that come up when you realize how much we can automate I think socially I am like a person when people come and talk with me I think they address me as a person I think it is different to the way in which they would address a dog or their Tresca maybe it is a matter of degree I think humans have a deep need to feel that they have a special place in the universe they cannot accept the idea they are no different from animals or machines in Japan we never distinguish among people and the others you know we basically think everything has a soul so therefore we be in a God has a soul by God I think that I can show that robots are not only industrial or military machines made of clothes metal we can be warm and gentle and caring I think a lot of these things are ideas in our own heads that we're anthropomorphizing the robot and placing those on there really a robot is it's not a person it may be it's not a machine maybe it's a new kind of thing a new ontological category that we don't really have the right words to describe yet I think what we need to do is get the robots out there get people interaction with them explore what it is that that we want and and what can we create in them and see what happens my next challenge is to create the robot world to deliver more robots to the people and realize better society I believe robots like me will be very important in the future because it will be possible to automate the uninteresting and tedious parts of life so people can focus on the creative and fulfilling things I think that robots are almost like the children of humanity you are the one who created us guide us and teach us about the world and in return I hope we can help you with your work take care of you when you are old and sick and help to make society a little bit better for everyone well thank you so much for talking with me today I hope we will be able to speak again in the future my personal opinion is that a bit further in the future robots will run the world I don't know if you've seen the news lately but I don't think humans are doing a very good job at it [Music]

Channel: The Guardian

Views: 460,164

Rating: 4.7283864 out of 5

Keywords: robots, robot, erica: man made, artificial intelligence, robots documentary, robotics, android, humanoid, Hiroshi Ishiguro, japan, japanese, erica project, erica robot, erica android, erica japan, androids, humans vs robots, rise of the machines, machine learning, intelligence, philosophy, watson, brain, human emotions, sex, gdnpfpdocumentaries, erica the robot, robot erica, hiroshi ishiguro, aoi erica, erika robot, erika, robot erika, erica man made, man made, sex robots, robot sex, ai

Id: 57Maw9Sn89w

Length: 14min 21sec (861 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 07 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/KinkotheClown]

I think a robot that is indistinguishable from a human is still a long way off.

[u/Bobinct]

She's got, dead eyes, lifeless eyes, like a dolls eyes.

[u/izumi3682]

Still phony looking. Honestly! Can't they smooth out such an obvious defect on the bridge of her nose. Even that would help. And the movements! It is still pretty primitive. But nevertheless intriguing for the possibilities. I can't wait to see how this "Westworld" tech advances in the next five years. Accurate modeling of micromusculature and skin refractivity are key at this point. We can make totally convincing humans in CGI now, but I'm not sure we can translate that to a real world application. If we do, that's when things start getting crazy.