There's a lot of hype around the release of Sony's latest robotic dog. It's called Aibo, and is promoted as using artificial intelligence to respond to people looking at it, talking to it and touching it.
For several years, civil society groups have been calling for a ban on what they call "killer robots". Scores of technologists have lent their voice to the cause. Some two dozen governments now support a ban and several others would like to see some kind of international regulation.
A dividing line is emerging in the debate over so-called killer robots. Many countries want to see new international law on autonomous weapon systems that can target and kill people without human intervention. But those countries already developing such weapons are instead trying to highlight their supposed benefits.
Semi-autonomous and autonomous machines and robots can become moral machines using annotated decision trees containing ethical assumptions or justifications for interactions with animals.
A key opponent of high-tech, automated weapons known as "killer robots" is blaming countries like the U.S. and Russia for blocking consensus at a U.N.-backed conference, where most countries wanted to ensure that humans stay at the controls of lethal machines.
The reception at the Henn na Hotel east of Tokyo is eerily quiet until customers approach the robot dinosaurs manning the front desk. Their sensors detect the motion and they bellow "Welcome."
Welcome to the 21st century, where a request for extra towels in your hotel room may be answered by a roughly 4-foot-high purple robot on wheels.
The Chinese kindergarten children giggled as they worked to solve puzzles assigned by their new teaching assistant: a roundish, short educator with a screen for a face.
Scientists at the U.S. Army Research Laboratory and the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory have developed software to ensure that if a robot falls, it can get itself back up, meaning future military robots will be less reliant on their Soldier handlers.
It can't be seen with a human eye. It doesn't look anything like C-3PO or R2-D2, or even BB-8. But, nevertheless, it is a robot (all 120nm of it) and its creators from The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) are now world record holders in the Guinness World Records for creating the Smallest Medical Robot.
Experts from scores of countries are meeting to discuss ways to define and deal with "killer robots"—futuristic weapons systems that could conduct war without human intervention.
Sony on Thursday announced that its Aibo robotic dogs infused with artificial intelligence will be unleashed on the US market by the year-end holiday season, with a price tag of $2,899.
A rolling robot may be coming to a Dallas sidewalk near you.
We've all tried talking with devices, and in some cases they talk back. But, it's a far cry from having a conversation with a real person. Now, a research team from Kyoto University, Osaka University, and the Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute, or ATR, has significantly upgraded the interaction system for conversational android ERICA, giving her even greater dialog skills.
When drafting a treaty on the laws of war at the end of the 19th century, diplomats could not foresee the future of weapons development. But they did adopt a legal and moral standard for judging new technology not covered by existing treaty language.