Robots get friendly | csmonitor.com | Robots get friendly

Robots are acting more like people. Will our attachments eventually become too strong?

By Gregory M. Lamb | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

Experts say smarter, more human-like robots are on their way, including Hertz, a social robot created by David Hanson, a self-described 'sculptor roboticist.


Later this month Valerie will go on duty behind the reception desk at Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Computer Sciences. Besides doling out information and directions, she’ll chat about her ever-changing personal life. If you introduce yourself, she’ll remember you. If you ask about the weather, when she meets you again she may bring up the subject.

Valerie, in case you haven’t guessed, is a robot – one in a long line of increasingly sophisticated machines. Of course, computers and their physical manifestations, robots, are already deeply embedded in our lives. In some sense, ATM machines, self-service gas pumps, and TiVo video recorders serve as rudimentary robots.

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