Scientists create the world's first 'empathetic' robot
Although the robot displayed only a 'glimmer' of empathy the development is highly significant in the world of electronics
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Scientists claim they have created the first robot ever to display “glimmers” of empathy – overcoming a major obstacle that until now had proved elusive.
Although it’s still very early days, scientists hailed a breakthrough after claiming to have developed, for the first time, a robot which they say demonstrates elements of empathy – the act of being aware of and experiencing the feelings and thoughts of others, that has previously been out of reach for even the most intelligent and advanced robots.
Like a longtime couple who can predict each other’s every move, a robot designed by researchers at Columbia University in New York has learned to predict its partner robot’s future actions based on watching its movements, in experiments detailed in the journal Nature Scientific Reports.
Observer robot
The researchers put a robot in a small playpen and programmed it to seek and move towards the nearest green circle it could see.Then they put a second robot into the pen to observe the first. After watching its partner puttering around for two hours, the observing robot began to anticipate its path, which it was able to accurately predict 98 per cent of the time.
Sometimes the green circle would be obstructed from the first robot’s view by a cardboard box, in which case it would move towards the nearest green circle it could see.
In these cases, while the observing robot could see all the green circles from its vantage point, it was able to “put itself in the other robot’s shoes” – seeing which green circle would look closest to the other robot and correctly predicting its movement towards it.
What the researchers said
Boyuan Chen, of Columbia University said: “Our initial results are very exciting. They begin to demonstrate how robots can see the world from another robot’s perspective.“The ability of the observer to put itself in its partner’s shoes, so to speak, and understand, without being guided, whether its partner could or could not see the green circle from its vantage point, is a primitive form of empathy.”
What happens next?
At about the age three, children begin to understand that others may have different goals, needs and perspectives than they do and here a robot has demonstrated this faculty in a very basic form.It’s unclear how much empathy robots can be given in the longer term or just how long this will take.
But they are clearly going down a path that throws up ethical issues and needs to be closely watched, according to Professor Hod Lipson, also of Columbia University.
