Robots march forward - both on screen and off
June 24, 2001
By Jim Krane, Associated Press technology writer
NEW YORK - In the new science fiction movie "A.I.," humans build robots in their own image, using them for companionship, sex and as surrogate children.
Disturbingly, the robots begin to express human emotions, to love, to dream.
Outrageously far fetched? Maybe not.
Some prominent real-world researchers who work in the field believe the film's robots - played by human actors with special-effects help - are a reasonable approximation of where robotics is headed.
But it's anybody's guess when robots might encompass human intelligence.
Currently, scientists working on humanoid robots - that is, robots designed in the form of a human - are focused on building machines that can understand and obey voice commands, not issue them.
"If the movie showed the level we're working on today, it wouldn't be a good movie," said Maja Mataric, a robotics researcher at the University of Southern California.
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Japanese firms Honda and Sony have already built humanoids that can walk, wave and make some rudimentary dance steps. Within a decade, the robots ought to begin handling their design purpose: caring for Japan's burgeoning elderly population.
When Honda unveiled its P-3 humanoid, a plastic-sheathed robot that looks like a slimmed-down Michelin Man, U.S. government agencies began funding humanoid robot researchers like Mataric, whose robot Adonis is learning to dance the Macarena.
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