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This article comes from the official account of Wechat: SF Chinese (ID:kexuejiaodian), author: SF

The movie Megan tells the story of an artificial intelligence doll who attacks humans because he overprotects his children. Will such robots be on the market soon in the future? Will children also have robot playmates?

/ tr. by Stephen Kelly (Stephen Kelly)

Translation | Li Shijie

Visual Design | Xia Meng

This article is published in Science focus, No. 2, 2023.

In the movie M3GAN, there is a lifelike robot called Megan, which is programmed to be a child's best friend. It can listen, it can learn, it can dance. However, Megan has a serious design flaw: she doesn't hesitate to do anything to protect her child. In fact, no matter in the movie or in reality, robots that can threaten human security have already appeared, so will Megan, which will not hurt human beings, go on sale soon?

Megan is the ideal version of artificial intelligence to answer this question, we first need to understand what Megan is. Obviously, it is the ideal version of artificial intelligence. "although autonomous robots can think independently, their thinking ability is very limited."

"usually, even the most advanced artificial intelligence is just a machine," said Peter Bentley, a computer scientist at University College London and a contributor to Science focus. "although their capabilities are amazing, they have no thoughts, no consciousness, no emotion. We still have a long way to go to get artificial intelligence to Megan's level."

As to whether artificial intelligence robots can launch attacks on their own, Bentley believes that this is also very difficult to do. For example, if you give instructions to a robot, you must not give orders unless your own life is threatened.

But, "if a person holds a gun and points it to a child's head, can the robot attack directly?" If the child's father is holding a toy gun, then the robot attack will obviously accidentally hurt the child's father. At present, robots do not have ethics, even in the face of some common situations, it is difficult to make reasonable judgments and decisions. If they can attack on their own, humans will not be able to control them. In fact, for human beings, the greatest danger is not the 'evil' artificial intelligence, but our excessive trust and dependence on artificial intelligence. For example, at present, too much trust in driverless cars is very dangerous. "

Photo Source: unsplash Megan is the technology vision of the robot of the future, but Megan is not only the ideal version of artificial intelligence, but also the technology vision of the robot of the future. "it's not easy for today's humanoid robots to walk without falling down."

"We can't make a robot as complex as a human body," Bentley said. even if it can be made, there is no energy equipment enough to keep this complex robot working. to create a realistic humanoid robot, each joint of the robot needs to be equipped with a server to simulate human activity. but in this way, the robot either needs a 'huge battery pack' or is plugged in all the time. "

Megan even has a strong ability to dance, and Bentley is skeptical about whether the robot can be so flexible. "at present, the robot's arm does not have that many degrees of freedom (the number of joints that the robot can move independently)," he said. "it is possible that only elbows, wrists and hands can reach 4-6 degrees of freedom and cannot dance like Megan."

The dance movement of the robot is very stiff because the robot does not have enough freedom to achieve smooth movement.

Source: pexels's commercial value in developing robots like Megan, but Bentley believes that the reason why companion robots like Megan are not so easy to achieve has more to do with business. He pointed out that some technology companies have promoted the progress of artificial intelligence technology because of the "clear commercial value" of developing autopilot systems and face recognition systems.

"but developing a robot as complex as Megan will cost billions or even trillions of dollars," Bentley said. "if it is developed, it may also pose a threat to human security, what is the commercial value? If such a robot is more complex than a self-driving car, its price will be the same as or even higher than that of a self-driving car. Therefore, for a child, the best playmate is another child. "

Photo Source: brief introduction of pexels author

Kelly is a cultural and science writer who specializes in film and television drama creation. in addition to Science focus, he also writes for well-known media such as the Guardian, Wired, complete Film, Broadcasting Times and Entertainment Weekly.

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