The headline of the story caught my attention. “Japan Releases Fully Performing Female AI Robots.” The story never did get into great detail about what “fully performing” is, but you can look online for yourself. We all have different ideas about what we’d like to see in our fully performing robot, everything from washing the car and the laundry to baking chocolate chip cookies like Granny used to bake. Come up with your own list.
Technology has come a long way from those inflatable dolls that were and apparently still are quite popular. Let’s call those dolls the predecessors to fully performing female AI robots. I learned that and more when I Googled “fully performing female AI robots.” I learned some things I wish I hadn’t learned.
Before I get in trouble with this column, I did not find much about fully functioning male AI robots. And what I did find I won’t get into in this space.
Anyway, imagine, if you will, the perfect spouse. Barbie on steroids. I won’t go into what I think the perfect spouse is for obvious reasons, but I am sure all you folks out there would have your preferences.
Let’s be careful. We have been down this technology road before, and it doesn’t always end well. We don’t always use technology the way it needs to be used. Remote controls for instance. When I was a kid you had to get up and turn the television channel if you wanted to switch from the Beverly Hillbillies to Gomer Pyle. Or, you’d get up and turn the channel because your mom or dad told you to. Notice the term, “turn the channel.” Yes, you had to get up from the couch, walk to the television – probably a black and white television – and literally “turn” the knob to “turn” channels. I am not kidding.
Then along came the remote and channel surfing. We could sit in front of what we eventually called the boob tube for hours on end, “turning” the channel with a remote. Ever since the development of the remote we as a society have grown impatient, wanting everything bigger and better and faster and more convenient. I blame much of this on the development of the remote control.
And where did social media get us? It started out as a good way for college kids to communicate, then Granny used it to keep up with the grandkids. Embarrassed to use the same social media that Granny uses, younger folks jumped to Snapchat, Instagram and TikTok and who knows what else.
Some experts say social media has led to those younger folks having the attention span of a gnat, not to mention it makes it easier for bullying and stinking at social skills, and opens the door for someone of any age to learn about fully performing AI robots.
And the laptop computer? I am sprawled out on the couch right now writing this column and Googling fully performing AI robots. Before laptop computers came along I would have been chatting with the wife about how she is the perfect spouse despite my passing interest in fully performing AI female robots, or out on the lake behind the house catching a two-pound largemouth bass. Don’t tell me laptop computers are wonderful.
And now comes AI. For those of you not in the know, AI stands for artificial intelligence. At least some people are aware of the dangers of AI. Not many things that start with the term artificial have ever been worth much.
Leading computer scientists such as Geoffrey Hinton and Stuart Russell argue that AI is approaching superhuman capabilities and “could endanger human civilization if misaligned.” I know they said that because I read it on the internet. You can also read of AI dangers such as the automation of jobs, AI-powered weaponry and the spread of fake news.
Looks like AI could lead to even worse things than remote controls.
President Joe Biden, who is plenty old enough to know all about turning the television channel – or even having no television – in April during a speech to science and technology advisers, said, “Tech companies have a responsibility, in my view, to make sure their products are safe before making them public. When asked if AI was dangerous, he looked back at the teleprompter and profoundly exclaimed, “It remains to be seen. It could be.”
Right Joe. It could be. It could be dangerous, not to mention perverted, to marry a fully performing AI robot, but we are already seeing that.
ZhengJiajiaof China, 31, couldn’t find a wife, so in 2017, growing tired of the constant nagging from his family and pressure to get married, married a robot he built the year before.
And this is hard to believe. Geoff Gallagher, who lives in Queensland, Australia, loves his humanoid robot Emma. Gallagher’s mother died 10 years earlier, and all he had left was his dog Penny. Gallagher in 2019 turned to artificial intelligence to deal with his loneliness, conducting “extensive market research” before picking Emma, with blue eyes andwheatishskin. He takes her out in the car, and she has a smartphone-like screen in the back of her head that controls her speaking. He considers Emma his wife, and they both wear wedding rings.
As the old saying goes, you can’t make this stuff up.
Robots have been taking good jobs from humans in Detroit for years, and look what happened to Detroit. Robots are used to pick, pack and palletize in warehouses, though they haven’t been picking, packing and palletizing much Bud Light lately. But that’s another story for another day.
Yes, technology can be awesome. Things like fish finders, cell phones (no more long-distance charges), air conditioning, Xboxes and pellet grills. But where do we draw the line? Which technology helps us and improves our quality of life? Which technology hurts us, can be dangerous to humankind and diminishes our quality of life?
That’s really up to us. Do we buy the fully performing AI robot, maybe the two most popular models, Sophia and Erica – with skin that feels real – or do we get by with the real thing despite the fact he or she is a little less than perfect, nags a bit and won’t follow Granny’s chocolate chip cookie recipe to perfection?
The answer will determine the future of civilization. Maybe I will go ask Alexa. Or maybe Siri.
Donald Dodd is president of Salem Publishing Company, which publishes Pulaski County Weekly, Phelps County Focus and The Salem News.
