Featured Image Credit: @herediajerez/Instagram/Realbotix/YouTube
Topics: Robotics, Technology, US News, World News, Artificial Intelligence, Social Media, Science
Poppy Bilderbeck
Topics: Robotics, Technology, US News, World News, Artificial Intelligence, Social Media, Science
A 'humanoid AI-powered robot' is sending social media users' heads spinning.
To think many of us watched 2014 release Ex Machina or 2015 hit TV series Humans not thinking anything of the sort could ever happen in our world anytime too soon.
If you thought Elon Musk's Optimus robot hit a bit too close to home, wait until you see the artificial intelligence (AI) robot which has been created by Realbotix.
Realbotix's website unveils several 'modular AI-enabled robots', its product 'a modular, conversational robot designed for ultimate customization'.
"Whether you choose from our pre-created characters or opt for a fully customized humanoid, Realbotix offers a robot tailored to your exact specifications," it states.
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Realbotix's YouTube account adds: "Through our patented technologies and proprietary companionship-based AI, we combine lifelike aesthetics and movements with advanced engineering to create meaningful human-robot interactions, enhancing the human experience through connection, learning, and play."
Robots on offer include one with just a 'bust,' one with a 'paneled body' and then a 'full bodied robot' - prices ranging from $10,000 to $200,000 and beyond.
Chief executive Andrew Kiguel introduced female companion model Aria during Las Vegas tech event CES.
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He said, as quoted by The Express: "This is our flagship humanoid AI-powered robot. She’s highly realistic, she has her own social media so she may be competing with you one day. What makes her really special is you can talk to her and ask questions.
"Some of our peers in the robotics space make robots to replace human labour. We think that’s a great area but we think there’s a much bigger area in having social robots."
And it's not taken long for people to weigh in on social media.
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One Twitter user said: "How people are so comfortable around these is crazy to me. Sh*t is lowkey creepy."
"This makes me feel so uncomfortable," another added.
A third resolved: "If this becomes a widespread consumer product, im moving to the mountains in isolation. Just weird man."
UNILAD has contacted Realbotix for comment.
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However, Kiguel explains the robots are also being made in mind with trying to help with a 'huge epidemic' of loneliness 'among adults and teenagers'.
He reveals the robot can be 'programmed to know you and learn more about you' and create a 'bond' which 'feels like a genuine human condition'.
"They don’t have the ability to clean the house, they don’t do physical labour," the chief executive clarified. "But they’re more there to converse with you, it’s companionship. They can actually even be a boyfriend or a girlfriend, so we have built that into our AI."
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So, what do you think?