Emma Jansson
The rise of robots in this society
have gotten people nervous that everything will eventually be taken over by
robots. However, not all robots have to pose as a potential threat. IBM is
working on making robots communicate and interact more effectively with humans.
This new type of robot technology could be useful in customer services such as
help in hotels, banks and supermarkets. Not only will these robots be able to
react to voice recognition, but IBM development them to be able to recognize
facial expressions and body language.
One of the
major points in this article is that it is making a shift from two-dimensional
interaction to a more complex three-dimensional interaction. The two
dimensional interaction is the way we’ve been interacting with technology for
the past couple of decades. Some of these interactions include touch screens
and keyboards. In this article, they state that Siri is still considered to be two-dimensional
because it doesn’t pick up on a human’s mood and emotions. These components
that two-dimensional interactive technologies don’t have is what IBM is
attempting to introduce. Another main point in the article is that these Robots
will be used for customer service, where robots do not currently exist. These robots will learn to interact with
customers rather than simple roles such as building cars in a factory. The
technology is hoped to be able to recognize the tone of the interaction and
respond to the customer with a gesture such as a head nod. All of these new
advancements are an attempt for robots to interact with humans fully.
I think that this advancement is
great for technology, however the article fails to mention the costs that
developing this technology will incur. It is true that these robots are being
created to minimize error, however it is highly unlikely that these robots will
fully be able to interact with humans naturally. Therefore, spending these
costs on trying to perfect human interaction is meaningless. Another issue that
the article leaves out the fact that there are already people working in customer
service areas mentioned. Unemployment is a concern that every country has and
the role of these almost human robots would take away the opportunity to employ
unskilled workers. It will be interesting to see how IBM manages their costs
and how they impact the unemployment crisis with these new robots.
Mizroch, Amir. "Watson CTO: Personal Robots Will Come
in Peace." Wall Street
Journal. Wall Street Journal, 2015. Web. 29 Oct. 2015.
As you mentioned, robots are becoming normal in today’s society. It is very interesting that IBM is trying to create a three-dimensional robot, when all of the robots humans are a custom to are two-dimensional robots. The major problem that I have with robots is the dependency. I feel as if the world is becoming so dependent on all technology, not just robots. IBM plans on using the robots in the customer service area, but what if the robots randomly have a malfunction. The only reason I see dependency playing a major factor is because this is a new type of robot and it could easily malfunction. I think it is high risk high reward for IBM to implement these new robots but it definitely can work. I also see this playing a major role in unemployment, as you mentioned. I am very excited to see what happens if IBM decides to stick with their plan.
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