Page 32 - ARUBA TODAY

A32 FEATURE
Friday 19 January 2018
Lifelike robots made in Hong Kong meant to win over humans

By KELVIN CHAN machines like warehouse
AP Business Writer automatons, smart vacu-
HONG KONG (AP) — Da- ums and fuzzy companion
vid Hanson envisions a fu- robots.
ture in which AI-powered Hanson Robotics is privately
robots evolve to become owned and has a consum-
“super-intelligent genius er-oriented business that
machines” that might help sells thousands of shoebox-
solve some of mankind’s sized $200 Professor Einstein
most challenging prob- educational robots a year.
lems. Chief Marketing Officer
If only it were as simple as Jeanne Lim says the com-
that. pany is generating revenue
The Texas-born former but won’t say whether it’s
sculptor at Walt Disney profitable.
Imagineering and his Hong For now, artificial intel-
Kong-based startup Han- ligence is best at doing
son Robotics are combin- specific tasks. It’s another
ing artificial intelligence thing entirely for machines
with southern China’s ex- to learn a new ability, gen-
pertise in toy design, elec- eralize that knowledge and
tronics and manufacturing apply it in different con-
to craft humanoid “social texts, partly because of the
robots” with faces de- In this Sept. 28, 2017, photo, David Hanson, the founder of Hanson Robotics, smiles with his massive amount of com-
signed to be lifelike and company’s flagship robot Sophia, a lifelike robot powered by artificial intelligence, for a photo in puting power needed to
appealing enough to win Hong Kong. process such information so
trust from humans who in- Associated Press quickly.
teract with them. Las Vegas last week at the tractions like Pooh’s Hunny nesses such as wax models “We’re really very far from
Hanson, 49, is perhaps best CES electronics trade show. Hunt and Mermaid La- and robots that many peo- the kind of AI and robot-
known as the creator of So- Her skin is made of a nan- goon. He studied film, ani- ple find a bit creepy. ics that you see in movies
phia, a talk show-going ro- otech material that Han- mation and video, eventu- Some experts see Sophia as like ‘Blade Runner’,” said
bot partly modeled on Au- son invented and dubbed ally earning a doctorate in mainly a clever marketing Pascale Fung, an engineer-
drey Hepburn that he calls “Frubber,” short for flesh- interactive arts and tech- gimmick. ing professor at Hong Kong
his “masterpiece.” rubber, that has a flesh-like nology from the University “It’s a good advertising University of Science and
Akin to an animated man- bouncy texture. Cameras of Texas at Dallas. tool, whatever that com- Technology. “Sorry to dis-
nequin, she seems as much in her eyes and a 3D sen- Hanson says he makes his pany produces as a busi- appoint you.”
a product of his back- sor in her chest help her robots as human-like as ness plan,” said Roland Unlike toddlers, who use all
ground in theatrics as an to “see,” while the pro- possible to help alleviate Chin, chair professor of five senses to learn quickly,
example of advanced cessor that serves as her fears about robots, artificial computer science at Hong machines generally can
technology. brain combines facial and intelligence and automa- Kong Baptist University. handle only one type of in-
“You’re talking to me right speech recognition, natu- tion. That runs contrary to Global market revenue put at a time, she noted.
now, which is very ‘Blade ral language processing, a tendency in the industry for service robotics is fore- While Sophia’s repartee
Runner,’ no?” Sophia said speech synthesis and a mo- to use cute robo-pets or cast to grow from $3.7 bil- can be entertaining, she’s
during a recent visit to Han- tion control system. overtly machine-like ro- lion in 2015 to $15 billion easily thrown off topic and
son Robotics’ headquarters Sophia seems friendly and bots like Star Wars’ R2-D2 to in 2020, according to IHS her replies, based on open-
in a suburban Hong Kong engaging, despite the un- avoid the “uncanny valley” Markit. That includes both source software, some-
science park, its home natural pauses and ca- problem with human like- professional and domestic times miss the mark.q
since soon after Hanson dence in her speech. Her
moved to the city in 2013. predecessors include an
“Do you ever look around Albert Einstein, complete
you and think, ‘Wow I’m liv- with bushy mustache and
ing in a real world science white thatch of hair, a ro-
fiction novel?’” she asked. bot named Alice whose
“Is it weird to be talking to a grimaces run a gamut of
robot right now?” emotions and one eerily
Hanson Robotics has made resembling the late sci-fi
about a dozen copies of author Philip K. Dick, which
Sophia, who like any hu- won an award from the
man is a work in progress. American Association of
A multinational team of sci- Artificial Intelligence. They
entists and engineers are variously leer, blink, smile
fine tuning her appearance and even crack jokes.
and the algorithms that en- Disney’s venture capital
able her to smile, blink and arm is an investor in Han-
refine her understanding son, which is building a ro-
and communication. bot based on one of the
Sophia has moving 3D-print- entertainment giant’s char-
ed arms and, with the help acters.
of a South Korean robotics An artist and robotics sci-
company, she’s now go- entist, Hanson worked on
ing mobile. Shuffling slowly animatronic theme park In this Sept. 28, 2017, photo, David Hanson, the founder of Hanson Robotics, works on his company’s
on boxy black legs, Sophia shows, sculpting props and flagship robot Sophia, a lifelike robot powered by artificial intelligence in Hong Kong.
made her walking debut in characters for Disney at- Associated Press