Mike's List 244
Mike's List 244
The myth of job-stealing humanoid robots; eye contact in Zoom; well armed maps; Amazon Hitler icons; and more!
5 reasons why humanoid robots will never take your job
Human-like robots are poised to enter the workforce and take all our jobs away any day now, right?
Uh… not even close. We are decades away from having human-like robots living and working amongst us.
Consider the most recent robot to enter the workforce: Hyundai today rolled out an AI-powered customer-service robot for car dealerships. Called DAL-e, the 4-foot tall robot is being deployed in South Korean car dealerships.
DAL-e boasts face recognition for remembering customers. And its function is to answer questions. In other words, it’s a kiosk on wheels. Yes, it can “navigate” (no double slowly and haltingly around on a perfectly smooth surface). Then, once identifying a customer, basically perform the same function as any automated customer service phone center. Yes, they molded plastic to give it “arms” that gesture.
And it’s “face” is pictures on screens.
Not exactly “Westworld.”
Also, and more to the point: DAL-e isn’t taking a job. In fact, it takes extra work and personnel at Hyundai to keep these things rolling.
In fact, novelty customer service is where most of the humanoid robots are going. For many years, companies have worked hard to create robots with facial expression, blinking eyes and moving mouths when they talk. The more sophisticated they are, the more they enter the dreaded “uncanny valley.” It takes so much engineering, compute power and mechanical ingenuity just to create a head, moving face and vaguely believable interaction that most of these robots end up answering customer questions in hotels and other venues. They’re just heads on fake upper-body torsos. And people don’t like them much.
The technology is so off-putting that when the creators of the HBO series “Silicon Valley” wanted a creepy robot torso named “Fiona” for the show, they couldn’t find an actual existing robot that could fill the role. They used an actress, then applied visual effects to make her appear robotic.
Read the rest, see all the videos and get all the links — and read my 5 reasons why we are decades away from having human-like robots living and working amongst us. (Link to paid version.)
Mike’s List of Brilliantly Bad Ideas
1. Eye contact during Zoom calls
An Alaska inventor named Ian Foster created a way to maintain eye contact during Zoom calls. His Center Cam hovers over the person’s face during a video call. By looking at their face, or what’s visible on either side of the camera, the other person perceives that you’re making eye contact.
2. A giant arm to point at map locations
If the “big mouse pointer” option isn’t big enough, you can now opt for a giant arm shadow, at least for maps. The pointed finger turns into an open hand while dragging the map. The Shadow Arm map is actually great for presentations, teaching and screenshots.
3. Giving the Amazon icon a Hitler mustache
Amazon finally updated its mobile icon from one that shows a shopping cart to an icon representing an Amazon delivery box. Unfortunately, the blue “tape” on the box just above the smirking mouth graphic makes it look like a mouth with a Hitler mustache. And once you see it, you can never un-see it.
4. Adding sounds to Google Earth
A UK professor of Electroacoustic Music and Composition named Pete Stollery created an interface for Google Earth that lets you listen to public sounds on Google Maps during the pandemic. Right now, they’re all in Europe and the UK. If you’d like to submit your sounds to the Sound Map, you can do it here.
Mike’s List of Shameless Self Promotions
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