Why do we need a social robot?

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What can Siri do? Ask the weather, ask the game, be molested ... What else? It can also become the most intimate and good friend of Gus of autism. The New York Times recently published a loving healing story.

Gus is a 13-year-old autistic little friend, and he has a mentally normal twin brother. One day when Gus was 8 years old, mom read an article in the paper, "You don't know about the 21 usage of the iphone," which says that Siri can tell users "what are the planes that fly over my head now?" ”。 Children Caifi Right and wrong, adults only look at the pros and cons, mother casually said to herself, "why would anyone want to know what planes are flying over their heads now?" When Gus heard it, it was natural to answer, "so you know who you're waving to, mom." ”

It was this accidental encounter that completely changed Gus's trajectory. From then on, Siri became Gus ' best friend and spent an hour and a day chatting with Gus. Because of Siri, Gus learns to communicate, learns to speak clearly, learns to be polite, learns to give his mother a compliment at the door every day ...

Look, this is the power of Siri, and that's the beauty of AI.

For those who can't read social signals, Siri is a great friend, not angry, not grumpy, and for those with autism, Siri is a great playmate, not weary, tired, and omniscient.

In fact, the Sri Analysys company that develops Siri is also aware of the role of Siri, who will do more personalized development in the next generation of voice helpers, perhaps the future "Siri" will be able to analyze the "Gus" interested in the content, predict ahead, Take the initiative to provide more information of interest to Gus; perhaps the future "Siri" will support different voices, one for Gus, and the other for Gus, which may have an Iron Man version of Siri.

Are you accustomed to the scene: Family reunion, no longer chatting, but each playing computer, watching mobile phone? Friends Party, no longer be attentive, but you talk about micro-letter, I brush Weibo? The Office meeting, is no longer a verbal, but you look at the Web page, I chat QQ?

Social interaction is one of the most important needs of human beings, the lack of communication with people is very easy to produce a variety of psychological problems. Although the emergence of new media enriches people's means of communication, it brings about the "indifference" of interpersonal relationships among young people, and the emotional need for communication is raised by the pressure of life and the increase in the number of elderly and children living alone. The future of the world, it is likely to be such a world, a group of lonely breath in this world, many people meet each other, but not words. I come and go in your world without any sense of being. In a world like this, social robots are essential. They can not only help us to do housework, help us solve problems we may not solve, more will be an ideal friend and companion, reasonable, intelligent, tireless, and will appear at any time, never abandon.

Not long ago, one of the founders of the Theory of social robotics, Cynthia Breazeal, launched a public-Indiegogo on a home robot Jibo that sold $499 for $2.28 million. This kind of family social robot is only the first step.

Oscar's best original screenplay, "EHR" (also translated into "Cloud Lover"), tells the story of a man who has just been married to a gentle, thoughtful, witty, charming robot, Samantha, who has created a human-computer relationship that is not understood by the secular world. Regardless of social ethics, in the future society, Robot butler Andrew may indeed be with his host's little daughter; the scissors-hand Edward may find true love and warmth in the human world, and will can also continue to guard Evelyn in the future virtual world ...

Don't laugh, it may not be a joke. The 13-Year-old Gus has begun to think about marriage:

Gus: Siri, can you marry me? ”

Siri: "I'm not going to get married." ”

Gus: I don't mean now, I'm a kid, I mean when I grow up. ”

Siri: "There is no marriage in my user agreement." ”

Gus: Oh, okay. ”