/ News
Adorable AI-powered robot Musio just wants to be your friend
Everyone complains about not having flying cars yet, but where are our robotic pals? Films like Short Circuit, Big Hero 6 and Wall-E certainly make them seem appealing, though our ever-constant anxiety around Terminator-like robot uprisings is likely holding them back. Musio, the first hardware product from the AI software company AKAStudy, hopes to change the way we view robot companions. Using the company's machine learning and natural language technology, it can have back and forth conversations and even learn from your chats, making it seem more like an attentive friend than a dumb machine. AKA's hoping to raise $50,000 on Indiegogo to get Musio produced -- so far, even without promotion, it's got $16,000 from backers. Musio could be like a smarter physical take on Apple's Siri: It can alert you of emails and events on your calendar, but it can also interact with connected gadgets in your home. Also, if you can look past its cold, dead eyes (which animate to show emotion) it's sort of cute.
AKA originally thought up Musio as a way to help teach English to kids in Asia, but it eventually realized there was also a much wider need for a house robot that can actually hold conversations. "[Musio is] going to be a character, going to be your friend, someone you can kind of talk to and have fun with," said AKA linguist Jacob Bradsher. "Lots of people are scared of AI, but we want to show how it can be used for doing good things."
You can get a basic sense of how Musio works in the video below, where Bradsher has a simple conversation with the bot. It's clearly in the early stages -- I wasn't able to chat with Musio myself, and it seemed as if it was only programmed to respond to a few questions -- but it was still engaging. After telling a few jokes and showing its ability to turn on a smart light, fan and Bluetooth radio, Musio also mentioned grabbing a meal at Shake Shack in NYC, something that Bradsher had mentioned to it previously. That sort of casual conversation could help to separate Musio from other bots and AI-like assistants.
AKA plans to offer a range of Musio pricing options, starting with an inexpensive version for kids which can handle basic conversations for around $99. There's also going to be a separate add-on that turns Musio into an interactive teacher. At the high end will be an advanced version of Musio for developers for around $599. Somewhere between those two price ranges there'll be a "smart" version of Musio that can get 11 hours of battery life. Devs will also be able to get an add-on that connects Musio to three Arduino-compatible boards, three Zigbee modules, and a controller app for Android. AKA has also developed a peripheral called "Sophy" that allows Musio to interact with objects in your home.
Musio still has a long way to go, and it's unclear if AKA will actually be able to reach all of its tech and pricing targets if it gets funded. But it's a sign of how we could be living with our tech differently. Rather than a cold cylinder like Amazon's Echo, it's a connected house bot that you may actually form some sort of friendship with. I, for one, welcome our future robot companions.
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2015/06/01/musio-ai-robot/
/ About us
Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.
The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.
A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.
The "2045" team is working towards creating an international research center where leading scientists will be engaged in research and development in the fields of anthropomorphic robotics, living systems modeling and brain and consciousness modeling with the goal of transferring one’s individual consciousness to an artificial carrier and achieving cybernetic immortality.
An annual congress "The Global Future 2045" is organized by the Initiative to give platform for discussing mankind's evolutionary strategy based on technologies of cybernetic immortality as well as the possible impact of such technologies on global society, politics and economies of the future.
Future prospects of "2045" Initiative for society
2015-2020
The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.
2020-2025
Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning bodily life. Such technologies will greatly enlarge the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make all kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.
2030-2035
Creation of a computer model of the brain and human consciousness with the subsequent development of means to transfer individual consciousness onto an artificial carrier. This development will profoundly change the world, it will not only give everyone the possibility of cybernetic immortality but will also create a friendly artificial intelligence, expand human capabilities and provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or modify their own brain multiple times. The final result at this stage can be a real revolution in the understanding of human nature that will completely change the human and technical prospects for humanity.
2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
Key elements of the project in the future
• International social movement
• social network immortal.me
• charitable foundation "Global Future 2045" (Foundation 2045)
• scientific research centre "Immortality"
• business incubator
• University of "Immortality"
• annual award for contribution to the realization of the project of "Immortality”.
/ Follow us at:
/ Contact:
For additional information, partnerships and sponsorship, contact:
info@2045.com
Media requesting information and interviews, contact PR@2045.com
LinkedIn
LiveJournal
Google
Twitter
Facebook
Я.ру
ВКонтакте
Mail.ru