Researchers develop a robot that reads your intentions, says you're 'thick'

Robots won't be able to wrest control of the planet from us silly humans until they learn how to collaborate. Sure, they can mow the lawn or mix a drink, but only when you give 'em explicit instructions. Luckily for our future robot overlords, The EU's JAST project is studying the ways that humans work together, in the hope that it can someday teach robots to anticipate the actions and intentions of a human partner. "In our experiments the robot is not observing to learn a task," explains Wolfram Erlhagen from the University of Minho. "The JAST robots already know the task, but they observe behavior, map it against the task, and quickly learn to anticipate [partner actions] or spot errors when the partner does not follow the correct or expected procedure." This bad boy has a neural architecture that mimics what happens when two people interact, and the video below shows the rather melancholy automaton trying to convince his human partner to pick up the right pieces to complete a simple task. Watch it in action after the break.

[gus @ Jun 6th 2009 7:19AM]

riveting stuff

[devin994 @ Jun 6th 2009 7:23AM]

Um...... Wow?

[r3loaded @ Jun 6th 2009 7:29AM]

"You're doing it wrong!"

[superhobo @ Jun 6th 2009 4:03PM]

It's the "You're doing it wrong"-bot.

Human: What am I doing wrong?
Bot: You are breathing. ಠ_ಠ

[whowhatme @ Jun 6th 2009 7:03PM]

what a great idea, building a robot that thinks it knows how to do something better, and will admonish humans into correcting their errors. i see now way for this to potentially backfire!

[joseph nickson @ Jun 6th 2009 7:30AM]

he got owned xD

[Gmo @ Jun 6th 2009 7:50AM]

Is it just me or is this ridiculous? I prefer Terminators to these idiotic pretenses of AI. We are so far judgment day, and I'm pissed off!

[Daniel Carvalho @ Jun 6th 2009 9:19AM]

University of Minho Rocks! Thats where i've studdied... :D

As a matter of fact, the robot kind of resembles a teacher i had there. "We don't need that piece to build the L shape"

[cube1 @ Jun 6th 2009 8:01AM]

he got owned

[Arkenklo @ Jun 6th 2009 8:21AM]

Why is it that the human is so eager to learn, that it is knowingly bringing itself to destruction, but still cannot hinder itself?

[lukasz @ Jun 6th 2009 8:33AM]

I was waiting for the robot to get angry and smack that guy in the face.

[dajimmers @ Jun 6th 2009 9:09AM]

I know- it's not making them know what is supposed to happen that will kill us, it's giving them emotions so they get pissed off when they realize we're doing everything wrong. I say intelligence or emotions, but not both. And certainly not lasers.

[benhc911 @ Jun 6th 2009 8:42AM]

Nothing like building robots that feel like they know better than humans and are willing to act on it. Good thing the robot understands a good old fashioned no command... better than a lot of kids

[AMiSH PiRATE @ Jun 7th 2009 1:17AM]

I don't think that robot knows it's better then humans. It doesn't know what humans are. It does know the clearly defined components needed to make a finite number of constructs and it recognizes when something (human, robot, or freakin' worm hole alien) tries to make said constructs.

[Boards of Canada @ Jun 6th 2009 9:27AM]

Nice t-shirt, robot. Very effective in the dark. Now dance for me.

[Jake @ Jun 7th 2009 2:00PM]

Pretty sure that's the Walmart logo on the robot's shirt. A future greeter, no doubt.

[rocktht @ Jun 8th 2009 12:53AM]

He'll be outside at walmart saying "Welcome to walmart. Get your shit and get out"

[raeesgillani @ Jun 6th 2009 9:52AM]

aahhha imagine when the guy says ''no'' to receiving that piece from the robot and robot goes ''what!! did you say'' and smashes the piece into the guys head loool

[Tyler @ Jun 6th 2009 10:20AM]

The symbol on the robot's shirt reminds me of the spirits you fight on Rykros in Phantasy Star IV. Especially the one who teaches Megid.

[Craig @ Jun 6th 2009 12:49PM]

I reckon I could have built that shape without the robot's help, to be honest.

[petrosdias @ Jun 6th 2009 1:51PM]

"You are going towards the door. You are trying to escape from this room. [closes door] You are trying to disconnect me. [delivers powerful electric shock] Your heart will stop beating in 5.65 seconds. You will die."

[Andrew @ Jun 6th 2009 1:53PM]

Next you need a girlfriend.

[xconan @ Jun 6th 2009 9:04PM]

if girls were synthetic and customizably perfect in the eyes of the beholder and they wouldn't get old but owner would... after all those years real girls probably wouldn't want to hang out with you but your synthetic girlfriend would. then again her ai and quirks were fashioned to the owners liking.

[degreethis @ Jun 6th 2009 2:06PM]

Sounds a little too close to AYBABTU!
"All your base are belong to us."
"You are on the way to destruction"
"You have no chance to survive make your time."

[degreethis @ Jun 6th 2009 2:10PM]

Tell me they didn't use the same voice :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qItugh-fFgg

[ED @ Jun 6th 2009 7:14PM]

You know what you doing.

[LMM @ Jun 6th 2009 4:58PM]

What it said:
"We don't need that piece to assemble the L-shape. To build the L-shape you need to insert the small slat onto the medium slat."

What I heard:
"We don't need humans to have peace. To build the perfect society you need to irradicate the human population and remove the threat of war."


Also, that guy is mean. Least he could do is show some affection. Be a little human.
Robot: "Next you need the small slat. Here you have it."
Human: "No."
Robot: *runs away in tears*

[Levi @ Jun 6th 2009 8:40PM]

ok, but the thing is, he's probably just programmed to read your intentions when it's in front of a table with these parts layed out in front of him. If he's down in a wood shop, he's not going to know what you're about to build a bird house, or a rack for your DVD pr0n collection.

It's kinda neat, but it would take an innssaaaaaane amount of programming to multiply this idea enough times over enough instances before it could have a slight chance of knowing what you're trying to accomplish in day to day life.

[superhobo @ Jun 7th 2009 7:56AM]

"he's probably just programmed to read your intentions"

That's the creepiest thing I've read.

Thankfully, it's not true. From the article:
"The JAST robots already know the task, but they observe behavior, map it against the task, and quickly learn to anticipate [partner actions] or spot errors when the partner does not follow the correct or expected procedure."

[keithwwalker @ Jun 7th 2009 2:21AM]

damn robot has morphed into robot hipster, with tight t-shirt and skinny girl jeans....

[Rudy @ Jun 7th 2009 1:21PM]

intersting