Researchers at Toshiba’s Akimu Robotic Research Institute were thrilled ten months ago when they successfully programmed Kenji, a third generation humanoid robot, to convincingly emulate certain human emotions. At the time, they even claimed that Kenji was capable of the robot equivalent of love. Now, however, they fear that his programming has taken an extreme turn for the worst.
“Initially, we were thrilled to see a bit of our soul come alive in this so called ‘machine,’” said Dr. Akito Takahashi, the principal investigator on the project. “This was really the final step for us in one of the fundamentals of the singularity.”
Kenji was part of an experiment involving several robots loaded with custom software designed to let them react emotionally to external stimuli. After some limited environmental conditioning, Kenji first demonstrated love by bonding with a a stuffed doll in his enclosure, which he would embrace for hours at a time. He would then make simple, but insistent, inquiries about the doll if it were out of sight. Researchers attributed this behavior to his programmed qualities of devotion and empathy and called the experiment a success.
What they didn’t count on were the effects of several months of self-iteration within the complex machine-learning code which gave Kenji his initial tenderness. As of last week, Kenji’s love for the doll, and indeed anybody he sets his ‘eyes’ on, is so intense that Dr. Takahashi and his team now fear to show him to outsiders.
The trouble all started when a young female intern began to spend several hours each day with Kenji, testing his systems and loading new software routines. When it came time to leave one evening, however, Kenji refused to let her out of his lab enclosure and used his bulky mechanical body to block her exit and hug her repeatedly. The intern was only able to escape after she had frantically phoned two senior staff members to come and temporarily de-activate Kenji.
“Despite our initial enthusiasm, it has become clear that Kenji’s impulses and behavior are not entirely rational or genuine,” conceded Dr. Takahashi.
Ever since that incident, each time Kenji is re-activated, he instantaneously bonds with the first technician to meet his gaze and rushes to embrace them with his two 100kg hydraulic arms. It doesn’t help that Kenji uses only pre-recorded dog and cat noises to communicate and is able to vocalize his love through a 20 watt speaker in his chest.
Dr. Takahashi admits that they will more than likely have to decommission Kenji permanently, but he’s optimistic about one day succeeding where Kenji failed.
“This is only a minor setback. I have full faith that we will one day live side by side with, and eventually love and be loved by, robots,” he said.
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loved the article, pretty funny. You guys aren’t with out a sense of humor.
I can’t help but think someone will use this technology for sex dolls….
actually, sounds like human love to me.
waiting for a perfected robot 2 come 2 market
It sounded more like a slow development of the understanding of love, like a child’s viewpoint of it. Cute, and almost a bit sad. But funny.
OMG…this is reminding of the manga/anime…Chobits… =_x ……..
Wow, interesting.
Oldie but goodie, article.
The problem with robots, and love/affection., are the routines or mechanisms that’ll trigger the love reponse in robot (something very complex BTW)
They should be very advanced by now ¿isn’t it?
Someone is gonna get loved to death. :/
This reminds me of the manga Zettai Kareshi (Absolute boyfriend)
Honey NOD32.. )
i am a bit confused. how did the robot ( if he can only communicate through prerecorded dog and cat sounds) constantly ask about his stuffed animal?
also, this is all very very creepy. robots should NEVER have ANY kind of emotion or attributes that are the same as human. nor should they look human. they need to stay mindless, ugly, and intellectually inferior to the people who built them.
ABSOLUTE CHANYEOL!
is very sad and abomination,those who r doing this must stop elso GOD will punish them
Wth did they give something like this any kind of arm strength!
[...] 2010 a robot programmed to fall in love got a little too attached to a woman and wouldn’t let her leave the [...]
The biggest problem with efforts like these are the institutionalized traditions and misapprehensions about what love is and how it should be expressed. I wonder if any of the algorithm programmers were LGBTQ, non-monogamous, or otherwise “off the narrows” of a Disney-style romance.
No one, in the real world, functions off a stable ruleset for what love is, or how it should be expressed. We are constantly re-evaluating, and indeed measuring our feelings against the responses we receive. Why program love into a machine, without also programming in how to appropriately deal with rejection, or indeed to presume rejection (and not requisition) is the ‘default’ expectation?
I’d put all these neuro-programming dudes back in school, to learn how to feel as well as they can think.
DO THEM KENJI! USE your TENTACLES!!!!
What Panda said.
This sounds not so much like love, as anxiety. To truly love someone is is to desire their happiness ad fulfillment, not merely their constant presence.
Trust a Japanese robotics crew to come up with something like this pathetic and scary imitation. Poor Kenji!
Perhaps this is something for the consumer market; there are a lot of aging Japanese with really no one to care for them; the birth rate there is very low, and interpersonal relationships in Japan seem rather fraught with difficulties; e.g. grass-eating boys and those who refuse all contact with the world and whom will not leave the house; their parents are often left caring for them, bringing them food amd leaving it outside their doors so they don’t starve.
That something like this would be called ‘love’ seems to be the product of a culture utterly divorced from the real world, as indeed the Japanese are, crammed into their urban centers with no conception of Nature.
Do not want.
It seems they forgot to also program in Asimov’s Laws of Robotics!
“peter says:
February 20, 2013 at 4:58 am
is very sad and abomination,those who r doing this must stop elso GOD will punish them”
Yeah god probably doesn’t really care all that much. i think he has a few other things to worry about right now then a robot that can fall in love… like corrupt popes? corrupt churches? little kids getting raped by priests? to name a few.
Robotic ?? Possessive ?? Repetitive motions ?? “Bonds” with every woman he locks eyes with ?? Only ‘animal noises’ ??
By G_d… they have My “EX” locked up in the LAB !!! LOL
Sounds like a good Sci-Fi movie plot !!)
[...] http://realitypod.com/2010/10/robot-programmed-to-fall-in-love-with-a-girl-goes-too-far/ [...]
Turn for the WORSE.
Completely believable. Nothing about this story seems like complete horseshit.
“…Kenji refused to let her out of his lab enclosure and used his bulky mechanical body to block her exit and hug her repeatedly. The intern was only able to escape after she had frantically phoned two senior staff members to come and temporarily de-activate Kenji.”
Sounds like a prelude to robo-date rape.
[...] Robot with feelings [...]
I wonder if when the guys came to turn him off he was like “Just what do you think you are doing, Dave?”