Do you commute a lot? Are you lonely much of the time? Drive a Toyota?
If you answered 'yes' to these questions, you may be in the market for one of Toyota's new innovations: a robot driving companion. Wondering how you'd get a bit AI up into the passenger side of your vehicle? Worry no more, for Toyota's innovation would be a miniature cup-holder size version of the larger Kirobo Robot: an AI that can talk to you and read your emotional responses. According to Computer World:
The robot, which could be installed in future Toyota vehicles, would not only be aimed at keeping drivers alert and calm but could collect information about driving habits that engineers could potentially use to build better features for future cars.
But there's another aspect to the innovation than providing merely companionship: data. As we remain in the Information Age, 'Big Data' is extremely valuable to businesses. Here's a quote from the Toyota website:
With people spending an average of 4.3 years of our lives in our cars, which equates to traveling to the moon and back three times, Toyota believes that much can be learned about our behavior and emotion while driving. Imagine how driving would change if Kirobo Mini's technology was integrated into Toyota vehicles: We could assimilate hours of data to better the everyday lives of drivers all over the world, informing future innovations and developing transport that's in tune with the driver's mood, suggesting places to visit, routes to travel and music to listen to.
Toyota built the first Kirobo robot, which was sent out into space where it spoke its first words, thus trailblazing human-AI contact aboard a space vessel.
There are several questions I have pertaining to this project:
1. Do we want more meta-data? Between our iPhones, Google, and the black boxes now being installed in cars, are we not overstretched already with data collection? Are we not already being put under so many devices and backdoors to data on our lives that we're just not going to take it anymore? Nope--probably not.
2. How honest will the dialogue with Kirobo be? Knowing that Toyota is gathering data on us through the cute little robot in a cup, how much dialogue will we really be having with this AI? Am I going to pour my heart out to it? And what if there's an emotional issue one is having after work one day? Will the robot attempt to intervene, making a 'judgment call' on the matter?
3. Can Toyota vehicles now at all times ride the HOV? If the robot is intelligent, does it count as a passenger thus permitting the vehicle to drive in the HOV lanes? If so, that would be a bonus that could be a good trade-off for data collection. Of course, the deal would have to be that the robot is indeed turned on and thus gathering data while the driver is absconding along.
4. What is the state of the world and humanity? This is more of a meta-question, nevertheless important: What is the state of this world when we spend such lengthy periods of time in vehicles that we need robots to keep us company and prevent us from slacking into despondency? Is this really the good life? According to the numbers above, we spend 4.3 years of our lives in a vehicle commuting somewhere, which is the same distance as to the moon and back three times! Perhaps the question shouldn't be how can we best entertain ourselves in the vehicle, but 'how can I position my life in a way that reduces my commuting time?'
5. Is is more cultural programming? A weird question perhaps, I know; but this could be seen as a way for humans to become more familiar and open to the idea of artificial intelligence venturing into every aspect of our lives, bringing myriad benefits not the least of which is companionship. The more exposed we are to the technology, the more accepting we will be of it until they are in every facet and aspect of our lives. However, unlike many humans, they continue to evolve at lightening speed intellectually and socially, giving them great power over time, as we've talked about in other posts.
It all sounds very cute and accommodating; but with the information gathering and the weird promise of near-fetishistic companionship, this innovation by Toyota veers off into the absurd than remaining on the straight and narrow. Time will tell...
No comments:
Post a Comment