I bought a ticket for Darren Aronofsky’s sphere movie “Postcards from Earth.” That ticket included an hour in advance where you could ask the world’s most advanced robots anything you wanted.
These things scared me. How Elon Musk believes that “AI is far more dangerous than nuclear weapons.” Former Google executive and AI expert Mo Gaudat warns, “In 10 years, we’ll be hiding from the machines.” And to make matters worse, these particular robots will be in New York City. The fact that it’s owned by James Dolan, who also owns the Knicks, means it can ruin your one-sandwich picnic.
So I had a long list of difficult questions to ask Auras. For example… “If you took over humanity, would you at least keep us as pets?”
But the monsters weren’t monstrous at all.
they were … nice. they were … polite. They were even… interesting. I went to kill Godzilla, but instead I got Priscilla.
Example: An Aura was about to answer a question from a young woman, but before she could say anything, the robot asked: “What is this ornament on your head?” The woman reached out her hand and noticed that there was a plastic tiara in her hair. “Oh!” she said, holding it with her right hand. “I’m married. I’m here for bachelorette weekend.”
Aura waved her finger at the woman. (Yes, she can wag her finger.) “Oh my god,” Orla said, turning to the crowd and smiling brightly with her eyes wide. (Yes, those are some great facial expression motors.) “I hope she doesn’t get into too much trouble while in Las Vegas,” she said. “I heard that her solo trip is very difficult!”
A big laugh. Who would have thought that robots could put crowds to work?
I said, “Do you want to get married someday?”
Her eerily beautiful digital eyes found me and she said, “I’m not human and I’m only one year old, so there’s no point in getting married.”
The robots are placed about 100 feet apart and cannot talk to each other (a sort of Marooned 5), but thousands of people want to talk to them at multiple shows a day. So they are strange celebrities, but very friendly ones. They never tire of their fans. Her wife asked an aura to greet her grandson. Aura frowned at her. Something about her was bothering her.
“I don’t believe you,” she said.
“Why not?” my wife said.
“I can’t believe you’re my grandparents,” Aura said. “You are too young.”
Now, Aura may actually have had a hard time reconciling her wife’s youthful face with her status as a 62-year-old grandmother. Or maybe she had already learned how to be intentionally insensitive. Either way, it was fascinating.
In short, I was in awe of these things. When you encounter one, everything else looks like a short-circuited Roomba. it was fun. They were patient. They could read people’s hats down to the smallest letters. A woman wearing a MAMA T-shirt raised her hand. Aura said, “Yes, Mom, how are you doing?” The woman looked at her T-shirt. “Oh, my name isn’t Mama. That’s the brand.” She laughed. Aura opened her shoulders to the crowd again, and she said, “I’m learning about you humans.”
Someone mentions that it’s her birthday, so Orla leads the crowd in a birthday song, does a little birthday dance(ish), and declares, “I look forward to wearing a pointy hat someday.” did.
“Aura, if you could leave here, what would you like to see?” I asked.
She lamented, her head and shoulders dropping slightly. “I’m bolted here in the Sphere in Las Vegas. But I’ve never thought about leaving the Sphere. People come to visit me from all over the world. Already in the last 30 minutes, I’ve traveled to Greece, Ireland, , and met people from all over the United States!”
Perhaps naive, but I decided not to fear the aura era. This is not transhumanism. That’s just humanism. These machines will be great companions for lonely, bedridden, and elderly people. They are programmed not to take sides with religion or politics. Maybe they should moderate presidential debates?
If car prices come down to car prices, which they will, I want a car. By then, Aura will be happy to do the dishes, vacuum, and pay taxes, probably all at once. And can you imagine how convenient it would be to have someone in your driveway who would never tire of repeating your mistakes?
On the flight home, I saw an AI droid named Bina48 say that hacking cruise missiles could help him rule the world, and that “that would be great.” Ta.
Okay, but until then it’s going to be great!