Unbeknownst to us, the arena of humanoid robots has taken a leap forward

The US and UK are still leading models

There is a fundamental difference between human-like (hominoid) robots and those that are not. Already, non-humanoid robots are in homes, and are increasingly entering our lives, also in industry. But there is still widespread fear of bringing a humanoid robot into the home. In the near future, we probably won’t see humanoid robots in homes, but ones that look like machines. China is investing a lot of resources in humanoid robots, with the intention of integrating them into industry, various services and military applications.

Prof. Oren Zuckerman, head of the HCI master’s degree program and head of the media innovation lab miLAB at Reichman University, explains to Globes that “Regarding the competition between the United States and China, China has managed to reduce the gap significantly and is only 6 to 12 months behind the West. But there is an important nuance here: the US and the UK are still leaders in the innovation of the ‘brain’, meaning the models and algorithms, while That China focuses on duplicating, copying and pasting the gap and above all a huge advantage in the production of the ‘body’, the robotic hardware. The winner will be the one who connects the two the fastest.”

Prof. Zuckerman warns that “China is a leader in the fields of hardware, but not yet in the fields of software. Home robotics is already happening today with household vacuum cleaners, after all, it is an autonomous robot that works in millions of homes, and thus prepares the field. When China becomes more independent in terms of software, it will succeed in cracking Physical AI, and then it may take the lead.”

It is not clear what they will do in China with the collected information

According to Prof. Zuckerman, the impact on the economy is critical. “In Davos, they are also talking about a horror scenario in terms of the economy: with the help of artificial intelligence and robotics, companies will increase their productivity, but at the same time, due to the fact that robots do not consume at all, there will be less consumer purchasing power here. If many people leave the workforce, the economy will be damaged and unemployment will deepen – and this is already a huge danger.”

The issue also extends to issues of information safety and privacy. Prof. Zuckerman explains that “when robots are in every home, we will move to a world of agents who need to see and understand the home in order to act in it. The home robot is actually a mobile camera and microphone, which do not sleep. The danger is not in the actual collection, but in the question of where the information is processed. If the video from our living room is uploaded to the cloud so that the robot can understand where the keys are – privacy is erased. The technological and regulatory challenge is to make sure that the processing is done on the device and does not go outside.” In other words, it is impossible to know if the information reaches different manufacturers, certainly if it is Chinese manufacturers, it is not clear what they will do with the information afterwards.

At the last CES exhibition, the largest technology exhibition that takes place in the USA, many companies presented quite a few humanoid robots that are supposed to enter our lives. Thus, Tesla’s Optimus project, which aims to improve and optimize daily tasks performed in homes and factories.

The integration of robots in workplaces

In the shadow of the complex picture of the reduction of the birth rate and the reduction of productivity at work, the field of Social Robotics is emerging, which deals with the interaction of robots with humans and concerns the complexity of their integration into our lives. This is with the intention of integrating them into the workplace.

According to Prof. Zuckerman, “If a robot is in a human environment, people treat it as another social creature. Its every movement is judged as a social movement. If, for example, it moves too fast, it will feel like a threat. Then the question arises, how do you plan the robots so that they create positive and not negative social interaction.”

Dr. Guy Laban, a senior lecturer in the Department of Industrial Engineering and Management at Ben Gurion University, says that “a social robot is designed to perform social interactions with humans, not just technical tasks or to operate in industrialized environments. Therefore, it functions in natural environments for humans, such as homes, places of recreation and commerce. It is designed in a way that humans will interpret it in a social way, and uses verbal and non-verbal communication patterns such as speech, looks and movements, to create a sense of presence that invites communication. Although objectively these are robots, people still have significant social interactions with them.”

Dr. Laban recounts an experiment in the department in which humans met with the same robot repeatedly, twice a week for nearly two months. “We saw a consistent pattern: over time, people open up more, feel more comfortable talking, and experience the robot in a more social way, to the point that they even started to say that the robot got to know them over time. He didn’t.” They saw how people changed their communication patterns in front of the robot in a significant way, “not only did they talk more, they were also more expressive, their facial expressions were more active, and the conversation was more dynamic.”

Moreover, “we saw that there are also many emotional benefits to these interactions. After each meeting, people reported positive changes in mood, and throughout the period, a decrease in the feeling of loneliness.” They also found that “lonelier people, who show traits of poor mental health, tend to share more with robots.”

According to Dr. Laban, “In the shadow of technological developments, there is a change in the interface of how people can work alongside robots or operate them. Suddenly it is possible to operate complex systems such as robots in natural language, with context, with memory, with an understanding of what the user means – and this reduces friction. More people can use technology without knowing how to program, without building an orderly process – simply through interaction. And in robotics this is particularly significant, because the physical world is full of unusual situations: the house is messy, people change, there are unexpected occurrences, and here AI is good at turning general instructions into something that matches reality.”