Technology bleeds into every facet of human lives–unless you live under a rock. It’s increasingly evident that at some point, technology will become more sophisticated and even gain the ability to think for itself. Researchers at Rensselaer A.I. and Resoning Lab have recently programmed a self-aware robot who demonstrates recognition of itself as an individual. Someday, mankind will look back at this research and think about how the early signs of robot intelligence came about. This self-aware robot is a breakthrough in artificial intelligence (A.I.) that will hold importance for many years to come.
https://youtu.be/KDXADpcQimw
The robots that understand themselves
The self-aware robots are programmed to be able to identify themselves and are actually NAO robots. NAO robots are frequently used for research purposes, and are available for sale commercially. You can watch their video here.
The key to their self-awareness does not lie in the mechanics of the robot, but instead, in the programming developed. This programming enables the robot’s being able to identify itself. The actual task is simple but the results yield important implication about robot capabilities to come.
Three robots are programmed to believe that two of them have been given a “dumbing pill”. The dumbing pill renders any robot given it incapable of speech. When the robots are prompted to determine and specify which of them has NOT been given the dumbing pill, one robot states that he does not know. Alas, after saying this, this robot recognizes its voice. In response to its self-recognition, the self-aware robot corrects itself by stating that it in fact, has not been given the dumbing pill after all.
Where does this breakthrough leave us now?
While this may not demonstrate the highly controversial artificial intelligence that researchers are chasing down, it does demonstrate some very basic reasoning skills. This gives engineers a glimpse of what programming may be capable of in the future.
Critical thinking skills are essential when the application of robots involves something that may cause direct harm to humans. For example, with the surge of autonomous cars on the road thanks to Google, someday an autonomous vehicle may be able to actively make a decision which could potentially avoid injuries and save lives, with an to ability to critically think in crash scenarios.
What comes next for mankind and the decision to build robots who recognize themselves?
The next step for Rensselaer A.I. Reasoning Lab, the research company responsible for this breakthrough, are projects as ambitious as instilling morals in programmable robots. According to their website, where they describe the self-aware robot programming they are designing, they are attempting for robots that can decide life-saving decisions for soldiers in emergency medical situations. While it is unknown how long it will be until we program a fully self-aware robot, this is a glimmer of hope for the future moving us one step closer to artificial intelligence.
