I had this as a kid, it was probably my favorite toy. It could beat the T Rex from Jurassic Park in a fight. No one else could do that, not even like 5 raptors like the stupid end of Jurassic Park.
Over in Japan they're pretty big about robots, with a lot of the scientists who work on robots going as far as trying to teach robots to be human. A while back I did a story on robots that were learning to lie to one another. Well this time around the Japanese have taught a robot to love.
This actually all started back in March, where through intense breakthrough programming, scientists were able to teach a robot to love. Initially the software used to program the robots was simply there to get emotional reactions out of robots when outside stimuli were presented to them. The robot in question, Kenji, at first learned to "love" a stuffed doll. Kenji would hug the stuffed doll for hours on end, and at first simply ask, while somewhat naggingly, about the doll and it's well being if he did not have it.
Initially this was seen as a success, Kenji was showing empathy and devotion, they had made the robot feel. But as of last week, things kinda took a negative turn. Over the course of several months, Kenji's devotion had turned into an obsession. The program had continued to learn and grow, and did not necessarily see anything wrong with these actions. But now Kenji's creators are afraid to let people near him. Just last week Kenji trapped a young intern who regularly ran tests on him within his enclosure. He only let her out after she was able to get senior scientists to return to the facility and de-active Kenji. Now Kenji is not allowed to see any people, and while they've learned quite a bit from him, his creators fear he will have to be permanently deactivated, as anyone who approaches him now is embraced in his cold grip and is not allowed to escape.
A pretty crazy story, but right up there in Bonus Time news. It's a tough question you have to ask yourself when you hear about stuff like this involving robots. Kenji was only doing what he was programmed to do, and had in that sense good intentions. However he has clearly gone to far in his devotion to outside stimuli. Hopefully in the end this leads to something good, although in general the idea of robots with emotions is fairly disturbing.
This actually all started back in March, where through intense breakthrough programming, scientists were able to teach a robot to love. Initially the software used to program the robots was simply there to get emotional reactions out of robots when outside stimuli were presented to them. The robot in question, Kenji, at first learned to "love" a stuffed doll. Kenji would hug the stuffed doll for hours on end, and at first simply ask, while somewhat naggingly, about the doll and it's well being if he did not have it.
Initially this was seen as a success, Kenji was showing empathy and devotion, they had made the robot feel. But as of last week, things kinda took a negative turn. Over the course of several months, Kenji's devotion had turned into an obsession. The program had continued to learn and grow, and did not necessarily see anything wrong with these actions. But now Kenji's creators are afraid to let people near him. Just last week Kenji trapped a young intern who regularly ran tests on him within his enclosure. He only let her out after she was able to get senior scientists to return to the facility and de-active Kenji. Now Kenji is not allowed to see any people, and while they've learned quite a bit from him, his creators fear he will have to be permanently deactivated, as anyone who approaches him now is embraced in his cold grip and is not allowed to escape.
A pretty crazy story, but right up there in Bonus Time news. It's a tough question you have to ask yourself when you hear about stuff like this involving robots. Kenji was only doing what he was programmed to do, and had in that sense good intentions. However he has clearly gone to far in his devotion to outside stimuli. Hopefully in the end this leads to something good, although in general the idea of robots with emotions is fairly disturbing.
