From the NYT:
“Hello, I’m the Snackbot,” it said in a voice not unlike that of HAL 9000, from “2001: A Space Odyssey,” as its rectangular LED “mouth” pulsated to form the words. “I’ve come to deliver snacks to Ian. Is Ian here?”
I responded affirmatively. “Oh, hello, Ian,” it said. “Here is your order. I believe it was a granola bar, right?”
Yes, it was. “All right, go ahead and take your snack. I’m sure it would be good, but I wouldn’t know. I prefer a snack of electricity.”
Please do read on. If only for Cynthia the chuckling cocktail robot.
Of course, if we’re being serious, the article does suggest that robotics is a dead-end industry that won’t make the leap to the services economy for a long, long time. It’s also pessimistic on the wider philosophical issue of human interaction with embodied AI.
Sorry, Snackbot.
