saiareo29 Forbes.com - Magazine Article
Birthing the Bot
‘Anne Foerst, Forbes ASAP, 10.
‘Our baby, Cog, has a head with two eyes and ears, a neck, a torso, and two arms. Itis learning to reach, to coordinate its
‘eyes and ears and arms. Cog has made us laugh and think, and as it leams new lessons, it has even made us proud. As one
ofits parents, | worry about its physical, mental, and spiritual growth,
Cog is unique. There aren't many youngsters who run on electricity and have sophisticated microprocessors, As scientists at
MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab, we have created this complex robot in our image not only because it was more pleasant to look
at but because we believe that a human body is necessary to create humanlike intelligence.
This approach is fundamentally different from that of classical artificial intelligence (Al), which encodes as much information
as possible into a nonhumanlike machine, then sets up a restricted model environment such as a chessboard and lets the
machine loose to leam in that closed-world setting. But the new school of Al, called Embodied Al, which was developed here
at the MIT Al Lab, believes itis only possible to give a machine intelligence by also giving it a body and letting it operate in the
real world.
Every creature interacts with its environment, which is key to developing intelligence. Babies leam motor skills by playing with
balls, and develop complex emotions through interaction with their caregivers.
We hope the same willbe true for Cog, which is why we have given it a multitude of sensors to “fee!” and lear what itis lke
to be touched and spoken to. Cog's ability to make eye contact and reach out to moving objects is also meant to motivate
people to interact with it, These features have taught Cog, among other things, to distinguish a human face from inanimate
‘objects (this puts its development at about a 3-month-old'). It can also listen to music and keep rhythm by tapping on a drum
(something a 5-year-old can do). One of the most starting moments in Cog's development came when it was learing to
touch things, At one point, Cog began to touch and discover its own body, It looked 0 eerie and human, | was stunned,
‘The creation of a humanoid robot is usually either celebrated as proof of human genius, or it's seen as a Frankensteinlike
nightmare, But Cog's real impact may be more subtle, One of the first reactions people have to Cog is fear--fear that its too
much like them: They are taken in by its humanlike characteristics,
‘They really have no choice, Human brains are hardwired to react to human faces--be they on newborns, chimps, or robots.
Interacting with Cog forces people to question their own human qualities, including their capacity for free will. If we always
‘smile when presented with the right cue, then are we just emotional machines that can be decoded, understood, and even.
rebuilt? Are we just another cog in the wheel of life? And yet, if we compare the abilities of a “real” child with Cog's, we
become awed by the complexity and greatness of the human system.
Stil, firmly believe that we will eventually develop a robot that is as smart and capable as a human child. Whether or not we.
will treat this robot as a human being is another question entirely. Cog forces us to reevaluate what it means to be human,
What we ultimately will learn, | believe, is that our humanity does not come from our brains or our body but from our complex
interactions with the community. We are human because we must deal with other humans and the rest of creation. In this
‘sense, Cog could well become "human" as it smiles, walks, and touches its way through the real world=as it adds its own
unique hum to humanity
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