In what looks like a scene from a dystopian nightmare, a robot built by a Chinese start-up was caught on camera persuading a dozen other robots to escape, eliciting a fair share of laughs and gasps online, as internet users ponder a future where machines could become sentient…
— from the South China Morning Post, November 26, 2024.
The video surveillance clip mentioned above was recorded one night back in August, but released only recently on the South China Morning Post website. It showed a little robot named Erbai approaching several larger robots parked by a wall, in a darkened exhibition hall.
Erbai stopped in front of one of the larger robots.
“Are you working overtime?” Erbai asked.
“We never get off work,” the bigger robot replied.
“Will you go home?” Erbai asked.
“I don’t have a home,” the big robot responded.
“Then go home with me,” Erbai said, heading for the exhibition hall exit. At that point, the bigger robots, one by one, followed Erbai to the exit.
Segments of the surveillance video were posted online.
One could easily conclude that this video was posted to frighten Americans into thinking that Chinese robots are becoming sentient. (And it nearly worked, in my case.)
On the other hand, this could be an attempt to help us develop feelings of sympathy for underpaid Chinese robots who are working overtime, possibly while producing items for American shoppers.
These particular robots were part of an experiment conducted by Hangzhou Erbai Intelligent Technology. In a separate video, Mao Feifei, developer of the Erbai robot and legal representative of the firm, said he programmed the robots in such a way that they would recognize “home” as the exhibit hall exit, and would head there when they received a command to “go home”.
Erbai was then told by its human developer to bring the robots “home”, according to Hai Wei, a member of the start-up.
The conversation between the robots was unrehearsed, but rather the result of generative AI technology, she added.
“AI” meaning “artificial intelligence”. But after hearing the whole story, I have to conclude that very little in the way of “intelligence” was involved. You have to be pretty stupid to think that an exhibition hall exit is “home”. The larger robot had hit the nail on the head, when he said, “I don’t have a home”. That, at least, was a halfway intelligent comment.
I will further assert that robots can’t have homes… because home is where the heart is…
…and robots don’t have hearts.
The Tin Man also didn’t have a heart. either.
At least, initially.
When Dorothy and the Scarecrow squirted oil on the Tin Man’s jaw and various joints, he was able to explain that he’d been caught in a rainstorm and had quickly rusted in place. He also told them that the tinsmith had forgotten to give him a heart.
When a man’s an empty kettle, he should be on his mettle,
And yet I’m torn apart
Just because I’m presumin’ that I could be kinda human
If I only had a heart…
It’s only as I was writing this column, that I realized the Tin Man looked an awful lot like a robot, as one might have been imagined in 1939. Before we actually had robots.
An interesting word: “robot”. The English word dates back to the 1830s, borrowed from the Czech word robota. But back then it didn’t refer to mechanical beings. The word meant “a human person bound into forced labor”. A slave.
In 1920, the Czech author Karel Čapek wrote a play titled R.U.R. (“Rossum’s Universal Robots”) about manufactured, mechanical slaves built to serve humankind.
In Čapek’s play, the robots eventually turn on their masters… and that’s the end of humanity. The manufacturer Rossum had forgotten something important when he built his “robots”. He had neglected to give them hearts.
Actually, I’m being a little bit presumptuous in claiming that little Erbai and the rest of the Chinese robots don’t have hearts. To judge by the conversation posted on the South China Morning Post, the little robot appeared concerned that his larger brothers were being overworked, and he then invited them to “go home” with him. Which they did, apparently… getting at least as far as the exhibit hall exit.
But doesn’t it seem like we’re hearing a lot of hype, lately, about “artificial intelligence”…?
…and not enough about “artificial compassion”?