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“OK,” you may say,/“but how about the human-AI interactions we already enjoy? I can talk to my smartphone. I ask her a question. She answers. We communicate.” But is that really communication? How often does your smartphone call you up?
Okada wants us/to think of a more intimate human-robot relationship. Real communication/is not a matter of me talking to you /and you talking to me,/but rather a case of us /communicating with one another. Is this sort of communication possible/between humans and robots? Perhaps.
Think of babies. Babies cry for milk. They show their satisfaction by becoming quiet. Parents learn to listen to the way their baby cries/and watch their baby’s reactions. Although no words are exchanged,/a real form of communication exists between them.
Raising an infant involves interaction. The baby is cared for/and gets the milk that it wants. The parents experience joy/in looking after the child. The baby’s helplessness and weakness/draw out the parents’ love and support. Could this natural form of communication/also take place between humans and robots? Okada is looking at how such a coexistence might occur.
In order to explore this possibility,/Okada and his colleague made Mako-no-te,/a small one-armed robot which can walk. When walking hand-in-hand,/the robot gives you cues,/adjusting the direction and speed/by pulling your hand with its arm. You infer the robot’s intentions. Apparently,/just walking with the robot/helps you build an interpersonal relationship with it. A kind of natural form of communication/seems to be taking place/between the human and the robot.
“OK,” you may say,/“but how about the human-AI interactions we already enjoy? I can talk to my smartphone. I ask her a question. She answers. We communicate.” But is that really communication? How often does your smartphone call you up?
Okada wants us/to think of a more intimate human-robot relationship. Real communication/is not a matter of me talking to you /and you talking to me,/but rather a case of us /communicating with one another. Is this sort of communication possible/between humans and robots? Perhaps.
Think of babies. Babies cry for milk. They show their satisfaction by becoming quiet. Parents learn to listen to the way their baby cries/and watch their baby’s reactions. Although no words are exchanged,/a real form of communication exists between them.
Raising an infant involves interaction. The baby is cared for/and gets the milk that it wants. The parents experience joy/in looking after the child. The baby’s helplessness and weakness/draw out the parents’ love and support. Could this natural form of communication/also take place between humans and robots? Okada is looking at how such a coexistence might occur.
In order to explore this possibility,/Okada and his colleague made Mako-no-te,/a small one-armed robot which can walk. When walking hand-in-hand,/the robot gives you cues,/adjusting the direction and speed/by pulling your hand with its arm. You infer the robot’s intentions. Apparently,/just walking with the robot/helps you build an interpersonal relationship with it. A kind of natural form of communication/seems to be taking place/between the human and the robot.