Alphabet Inc’s Google is combining the eyes and arms of physical robots with the knowledge and conversation skills of virtual chatbots to help its employees bring soda and chips from breakrooms with ease.
The mechanical waiters work on the concept of an artificial intelligence breakthrough that has led way for multipurpose robots to be easily controlled as if they performed single, structured tasks like vacuuming or standing guard.
Google robots are not prepared for sale just yet. They perform only a few dozen simple actions, and they don’t have the “OK, Google” summoning feature as of now.
Google is saying that it is working on its development responsibly. However, adoption could be a problem as people have concerns about such robots becoming surveillance machines or being equipped with chat technology that can give offensive responses, as Meta Platforms Inc (META.O) and others have experienced in recent years.
Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) and Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) are pursuing comparable research on robots.
“It’s going to take a while before we can really have a firm grasp on the direct commercial impact,” said Vincent Vanhoucke, senior director for Google’s robotics research.
When asked to help clean a spill, Google’s robot recognizes that grabbing a sponge is a doable and more sensible response than apologizing for creating the mess.
They follow the command and develop an action plan which is made possible by embedding language technology in them that draws understanding of the world from Wikipedia, social media, and other web pages. “Similar AI underlies chatbots or virtual assistants but has not been applied to robots this expansively before”, Google said.
In a research paper published in April, it was revealed that Incorporating more sophisticated language AI since then boosted the robots’ success on commands to 74% from 61%, according to a company blog post on Tuesday.
Fellow Alphabet subsidiary Everyday Robots designs the robots, which for now will stay confined to grabbing snacks for employees.
