As technology and artificial intelligence advances further, robots are beginning to look more realistic and human like than ever. These types of robots are referred to as humanoids, and many new ones have been debuting in recent years and grabbing attention all over. Companies are working to develop these robots to be as human like as possible, sharing similar appearances to us as well as even displaying emotions, and eventually to be able to function well in the work environment with other humans.
One of the humanoid robots that was seen all over social media in recent months was Sophia, a creation by Hanson Robotics. Sophia has many human like qualities both physically and emotionally, displaying a wide range of more than 50 facial emotions and has her own sense of humor—and she was even granted citizenship by Saudi Arabia. With all these new and advanced humanoid robots popping up, people are becoming more curious as to what their purpose is and how they can function to help us. In Japan, one of these humanoids is starting to be put to use in the workforce.
With the 2020 Summer Olympic Games coming up, Tokyo is readying itself for the influx of travelers to their city that will be watching or competing in the games. To help keep the city organized while accommodating the travelers, Tokyo is employing the help of artificial intelligence due to the labor shortage in Japan. With so many important tasks to accomplish in preparation and a lack of a large labor force, the robot ARISA is filling in the role of a tourist guide.
ARISA is a 6-foot humanoid robot designed by tech company Aruze Gaming that was first showcased in 2017, and just last month started doing her first trial run in 2 Tokyo subway stations. On her touch screen, you will find useful information to guide you around the city such as transit information, locations of tourist attractions, and directions to nearest restrooms. She is equipped to communicate with a variety of people who travel to Tokyo, speaking English, Japanese, Chinese, and Korean. The trial seemed to go well, leaving residents like Kyosuke Tanaka impressed by ARISA “[responding] more smoothly and quickly than [he] imagined” and her well designed user interface.
The city is hopeful that ARISA will help the 2020 event to go as smoothly as possible, and will even provide more help than the Olympic volunteers would due to her advanced knowledge of the city and its layout. The use of ARISA in place of a human tourist guide is just the start of humanoids becoming advanced enough to fill in jobs that once required an actual person. As technology and artificial intelligence further advances, it is possible we will begin to see humanoids all over in our daily lives working among other humans.
Here is a video of ARISA displaying how she functions:
Sources:
https://www.usnews.com/news/cities/articles/2019-01-08/ahead-of-the-summer-olympics-tokyo-deploys-robots-in-subway-stations
https://www.autoevolution.com/news/humanoid-robot-arisa-starts-second-trial-run-at-tokyo-subway-stations-131551.html
https://www.forbes.com/sites/zarastone/2017/11/07/everything-you-need-to-know-about-sophia-the-worlds-first-robot-citizen/#60e88b1246fa
2 comments:
As time goes on we see more and more people try to make robots clone what humans do at certain jobs but I think people should not worry about losing their jobs because we are far from having robots performing a job on an everyday basis. Yes, there are robots that can do a lot of things that amaze us but at the end they are technology so many things can go wrong with them. Yes, they can do simple things like tourist, but we should not worry about robots taking over every single job.
I think ARISA is a good example of using artificial intelligence. She is being used for a specific task that would be hard to complete without extra help. The Japanese know that there is a shortage of available labor, but especially with hosting the Olympics coming up in 2020. This is an example of artificial intelligence taking jobs, but jobs in a situation where there are no people to take them. Artificial intelligence like ARISA is being used to help an event go smoother as there is a lack of labor, not overtaking human jobs which is an issue many people have with intelligence that’s being produced. This is AI being used in moderation which I find a good way to start to introduce artificial intelligence to the public.
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