An electric buggy’s brakes fail, sending it into the street where it blocks traffic; its owners say that it’s the third time this has happened and they’re going to have to scrap it. Bystanders nod and get on with their day.
A dog slips its leash, running into the street where it blocks traffic; its owners say that it’s the third time this has happened and they’re going to put the dog down. Bystanders are understandably horrified.
Last month, the Russian robot wandered out of its testing and programming facility for the third time, blocking traffic when its battery ran out in the street. Its owners expected the first kind of reaction when they said they were going to scrap it. .
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This should not have come as a surprise. They gave Promobot a wide face and large eyes, infant-like traits that the , encouraging protective instincts. Seeing as the bot was intended for customer relations, its makers wanted humans to have a friendly, , and that’s what they got.
Robot dog slapstick
These scientists aren’t alone; by hijacking our pre-programmed response in this way, robot designers around the world have begun to expand our “circle of empathy“, intentionally or otherwise. And while this may lead to some unexpected complications, in the long run it is a good thing.
The Promobot “escape” wasn’t the only bit of robot news. Boston Dynamics put out a , a cocker-spaniel-size sibling of its much larger Big Dog robot.
The footage included a moment of slapstick as Spot slipped on a banana peel (promptly righting itself) and a demonstration of its grasping “hand”, which looks more like a head at the end of a long neck. Plastic googly eyes on the head/hand enhanced both the humour and the biomorphism.
Boston Dynamics is notorious for its animal-like machines, and showing Spot slipping and falling on a banana skin is a shift from its earlier Big Dog videos. These would invariably include footage of an in order to show its ability to recover. Vocal online reactions complained about the kick, many mirroring the response to seeing an animal being abused.
Empathy or fear
As the design of Promobot demonstrates, roboticists are increasingly conscious of how certain traits can elicit an emotional response. At present, most of this empathy-generating biomorphism is superficial, emerging from big eyes or movements that echo appealing animal behaviours.
But engineers have already begun to experiment with more complex phenomena; the , first sold in 2007, would react as if distressed when picked up by the tail, wiggling its limbs and crying out.
As we experiment with the intentional generation of an emotional response to mobile machines, empathy won’t be the only path. It may be that invoking fear is a more useful response in some settings, for example – something that looked more like a snake or a giant spider may be more appropriate on the battlefield. A robot used in warfare probably shouldn’t have googly eyes and look like a shiny llama. Or maybe we give Spot some real fangs.
Treat with care
Over the long haul, however, the more empathy we have for our robotic partners the better. Studies have shown that people who mistreat animals in their youth are more likely to mistreat other people as adults. We may well see a point where abusing a robot without regard for its apparent affection or pain will serve as a similar warning.
Treating robots like companions rather than like servants will benefit both our relationship with our increasingly sophisticated intelligent machines and our relationship with other people.
And when the day comes that robot minds are complex and aware enough to recognise abuse, I’d rather not see the appearance of resentment as a newly-emergent property.
