How Robots with Personality Will Conquer the World | Yury Burov | TEDxSadovoeRing

Yury Burov explains why robots shouldn’t look like people and how they can conquer the world.

This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences.

When I was 10,
I dreamt about having a robot

that could clean my room
or wash the dishes,

so I could go play outside
and ride my bike.

A lot of time passed, but my dream
never went away, so I made it real.

When I started to work on my first robot,

I realized that robots
can do more than just routine actions,

much more than just cleaning the house.

Over time, my dream transformed
from a child’s dream to an adult’s dream.

I realized that robots
can make us happier,

each and every of us,

be it a kid, an adult or a senior.

I realized that when people
communicate with robots,

something magical happens.
It never happens with a smartphone,

or a notebook –

it is something completely new.

It’s not like relationships among people,
but it’s something similar.

And I had a dream to create a robot

which could indeed
help people be happier.

There was a survey in which
348 children from six countries

were asked a question:

“Are you ready

to live around robots?”

64% of kids were ready
to perceive robots

just like other members of society.

64% of kids ages 8 to 12 are ready today

to think of robots
as members of our society.

This is already saying something.

And while it seems
there are no robots yet,

in fact, we have
robots of various kinds

in our daily lives,
I’ll talk about that later.

Now, 38% of kids would like
to learn together with robots,

study history,
learn in an interactive way,

play with robots
and grow and develop together.

I have a personal story to share.
About a year ago I was in an orphanage

and I started talking to this kid.

His name is Sasha, he’s twelve.

Our conversation flagged,

so I told him what we worked on,

that we created robots.

And he asked:
“Can I somehow talk to a robot?”

I had a smartphone on me with an access
to our robot’s intelligence.

And I said: “Sure!”

This in fact was an accidental picture,
when someone saw how he took

my smartphone and started
talking to the robot.

For the next three hours
I lost my smartphone,

he wouldn’t give it back to me.

When we tested our robot with grown-ups

we would tell them to talk to the robot.

And they could only come up
with standard phrases like:

“Hi, how are you?”
“What’s the weather like?”

And the communication would stop there.

People didn’t know
what to say to a robot.

But this kid knew.
He asked the robot about everything.

“Would it rain tomorrow?”
“How old is Tony Stark?”

And the robot said: “I don’t know yet,
but I’ll try to find out

and think about it,
I’ll tell you next time.”

In half an hour, after talking
to the robot about all kinds of things,

he comes back to his question:
“Did you find out how old Tony Stark is?”

meaning that he thought
the robot would go and find out,

read about it.

He perceived it the same way
he would perceive me.

I believe, even
as a more interesting person to talk to.

Just imagine that in 2050
the population of our planet

will be 9 billion people,

and out of them 1.5 billion

will be people over 65 years old.

What does it mean?
It means that for the first time

in the human history there will be
more people aged 65 and above,

than people under 20.

Imagine that?
There will be 1.5 billion of them –

it’s 16% of the total population,

and they will need care.

It’s interesting
that most people in this audience

by that year will be more
than 65 years old.

Are you ready
to accept pills from a robot?

What kind of a robot should it be

that you could accept a pill from it?
What should it do?

What should it say?

67% of urban population

ages 30 to 45 suffer from stress,

a stressful flow of information.

We don’t have time
to read our Facebook newsfeed,

reply to emails,
or to return calls from our friends.

We receive a huge flow of information,

we often miss wonderful events like TEDx,

because we didn’t know about them,
didn’t have time, didn’t hear about them.

In the search for happiness,
we download new apps on our smartphones

which remind us in the morning

that we wanted to go to the gym.

We undergo training to understand
how to make our lives work.

We go to Thailand,

to stay there
and realize what is happiness.

And, nevertheless,
under the storm of new tasks

we don’t have time
to do all that.

And when my smartphone asks me again:

“Am I happy?”

– there is an app that does it -

I don’t reply,
because I’m busy right now,

I’m talking to another person.

I realized it’s not enough
for a robot to be a tool,

a function.

I won’t get any emotions from a slave
or a function, similar to a smartphone,

I’ll stay indifferent,

I won’t feel anything.

I realized a robot
should have a personality.

What is a personality?
Let’s talk about it.

It’s not a person.

It doesn’t have its own intent,

but it has a distinct line of behavior,

that is, a sense of humor, preferences,
its own story.

When I came to Moscow to work on robots

three years ago I bought Roomba –

this is a robotic vacuum cleaner,

have you heard about it?
I brought it home,

set it up to clean
on Wednesdays and Fridays

when I’m not at home.

I did it on Tuesday,
so I actually forgot about it

on the next day.

I came home Wednesday night,
and saw my slippers scattered in the hall.

I don’t get it at all,
no one could come to my place.

I walk into the room,
see a cord lying on the floor

and my first thought is:

Was my place broken into?
I see my robot Roomba

lying in the living room,
tangled in the power cord,

it lies there
with an error blinking.

You know, it may not have a personality,

but I felt sympathy towards it.

I thought it was my pet.

Last time I had this feeling was

when I was 7 years old and had a dog.

And this is amazing.

Something was created
between me and this robot…

A dish rolling around
and vacuum cleaning…

A sort of a feeling.

In the US they madea robotic nutritionist.
It had a very simple function.

Every day you had to put in

the number of calories you ate,

and whether you worked out.

This robot…
They tested the robot.

They gave a nutritionist’s diary
to a group of three people.

In the first case
it was a special diary, a notebook,

into which they
put in the calories.

In the other case it was a software
which first asked the question,

and after that they
had to put in the calories.

In the last case it was a robot.

What’s interesting, is that
there was more interaction in a robot.

I mean all testers who had the robot,

and not 3 people,
there were about 30 people tested.

And there was 50% more interaction
with the robot, than the diary.

You know, how often we decide
to work out starting from Monday,

and somehow by Wednesday we realize
that we are too busy today,

so no way, next time.

And then in a month
we start learning English.

And in another month
we start something else.

But how often do we finish
what we start?

And how often does taking notes,
or a smartphone app help us do it?

So, this experiment
conducted at MIT in Boston

demonstrates that a robot allows…

A robot becomes a sort of a buddy,
a partner for people.

The most interesting is when a person
enters the number of calories

and the robot would look at this
and give comments.

Not fully interactive,

as with people
when we talk with a voice,

information would be typed on a keyboard,
yet the robot would interact with you:

look at you, praise you if you ate fewer
calories today, for example, and so on.

There would be more trust to a robot
than to a diary or a laptop.

Just imagine, the word is “trust”.

This word, trust, how often
do we use it in our life?

Do you trust yourself?
Your friends?

People trust a robot
more than they trust a diary,

they trust a diary
more than a computer.

Do you know
that if you ask a programmer:

“What is the most reliable way
to store information?”

The answer would be: “Paper”.

Most people think so too,
yet they rely more on robots.

When we were building our robot,

we had similar experiments.

I want to show a video with our robot

and I’ll tell you
about the experiments after it.

Human: Cubic, wake up!
(Blip sound)

H: What’s the weather like?

Cubic: Today it is plus four degrees Celsius,
one degree at night,

cloudy, no rain is expected.
(Blip sound)

H: Where can I go tonight?

C: Android movie is on
in the movie theaters,

shall I tell you more about it?
(Blip sound)

H: Thank you

C: No problem.

H: Cubic, wake up.

H: Turn on the light.

C: Turning on a device – light.

H: Thank you!

C: You are welcome.

YB: A simple “thank you”
tells a lot about a very deep thing…

A person feels grateful to a device

and says “thank you”.

this is interesting, when kids
play with toys

they too say thank you,

call them by their names,
make up their stories.

When we grow up, leave our toys behind
and buy, for example, a car,

we too ask it “Why won’t you turn on?”

We tend to animate stories around us,

and this is interesting.

There was another fun moment.

We build robots in a place
called HackSpace,

where many other different projects
work too

and often our developers
and linguists who test

and build Cubic talk to it and ask:

“What’s the weather like?”
And when Cubic replies they would say “Shut up!”,

so not to participate further
in the dialogue,

because they need
to test other functions.

And people who walk by and see

that the robot is told to shut up
will ask: “Why are you so rude with it?”

(Laughter) Just imagine.
And that didn’t happen once.

I remember this
happening at least ten times.

A girl came up to Cubic to pet it saying
“So, so, that’s okay”. (Laughter)

It’s amazing.

In their first interaction with a robot

74% of people greet it,

they say "Hi".

People do say hi – this is interesting.

Why on earth would they start
saying hi to a talking device?

The most popular question is
“How are you?”

I don’t know why, but people
indeed want to know how the robot is.

65% of users say “Hi”.
I’ve already said this.

It’s a reflex.
It’s just a word of gratitude

I say to my colleague who handed over
to me a pen or something else.

It’s interesting that people
perceive robots as partners.

Why?

Coming back to this thought,
what is a robot with a personality?

If one would ask a robot, how it is doing,
it would reply that it’s good.

If you say thank you to it,
it says “No problem”.

It interacts,
it not just provides information.

It has its own storyline,

and people buy it.

Can a robot like this be a partner

in terms of reaching certain goals?
Why not.

It depends
on the level of the technology,

but it’s possible
for this robot to ask me

whether I studied English today.

And if I say no for three days in a row,

it may say “Well, not a good job.

I’m going to post it on Facebook”.

We are on the verge of a new world.

It rapidly bursts into our space.

I think in 10 years
the number of robots around us,

different robots,
not necessarily human-like robots,

anthropomorphic
with two arms and two legs.

They can vary a lot, they could be

an assistant in a smartphone,
an assistant

built into a car or a watch.
There can be various options.

But in 10 years there will be
as many robots as there are smartphones.

And the question is:
what those robots will be like?

I believe those will be
robots with a personality.

Let the robots into your space.
Thank you.

(Applause)