When Robot Personalities Mimic the Dead

Albert Hubo is a battery-powered, untethered walking robot based on the Hubo robot developed by the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology. The robot's face, built by Hanson Robotics, is modeled on famed physicist Albert Einstein. Credit: Hanson Robotics Hollywood actress Audrey Hepburn and martial arts legend Bruce Lee represent just a few of the dead celebrities whom have been resurrected as digital avatars in TV commercials to sell products such as chocolate or whiskey. A Google patent raises a new possibility by describing robot personalities based upon the voices and behaviors of dead celebrities or loved ones. Such a vision may not necessarily come true, but it raises the question of whether people would feel comfortable dealing with a robot that actively mimics deceased people. The patent awarded to Google on March 31, 2015, focuses on the idea of creating robot personalities that could be downloaded as software and transferred between different robots through an online service. It also describes the idea of creating customizable robot personalities tailored to the preferences of human users. That lays the groundwork for a future where robotic hardware could update and switch their software personalities based on the specific human customers they're serving. The patent also covers the idea of a base personality that act out different moods such as happiness, fear, surprise, and thoughtfulness. Google's patent even uses well-known celebrities — such as a perplexed "Woody Allen robot" or a derisive "Rodney Dangerfield robot" — to describe a range of possible robot moods. "The personality could be multifarious, in the sense of multiple personalities, which may be selected by the robot according to cues or circumstances, or a personality could be selected by a user (a human)," according to the Google patent. "The robot may be programmed to take on the personality of real-world people (e.g., behave based on the user, a deceased loved one, a celebrity and so on) so as to take on character traits of people to be emulated by a robot." To be fair, companies frequently patent ideas that never become commercial products for one reason or another. On the other hand, Google has gone on a notable robot buying spree by snapping up at least eight robotics companies in six months just last year. The technology giant clearly sees a big future in robotics one way or the other. And as the patent suggests, the company has put some thought into how future robots might socially interact with humans on a more regular basis.