That's not to say there weren't other attempts as well. His robot roommate, Jibo, was randomly unplugged from his pack just a few years into the world. Meanwhile, another of his products developed in the US, his Moxie, an AI-powered robot aimed at supporting children's development, is still in operation.
When you look at a device like this, you can't help but shiver at the possibilities. There's something inherently disturbing about technology that tricks us into being human, and its eerie deceptions can hurt people in the wrong way. After all, our science fiction features his AI, and many of them are stories of artificial intelligence gone horribly wrong. An easy, and admittedly lazy, comparison to something like Fedor is: M3GANa 2023 film about an AI-enabled companion doll that becomes a full-fledged killer bot.
But social robots come in many forms beyond making dolls uncomfortable. They're assistants, pets, retail store employees, and, more often than not, socially inept weirdos who just hang around awkwardly in public. But they are also sometimes weapons, spies, and cops. There's good reason for people to be suspicious of these automatons, whether they come in fluffy packaging or not.
Wendy Moyle is a professor in the School of Nursing and Midwifery at Griffith University in Australia, where she works with patients with dementia. She says her work with social robots has angered those who see giving robot dolls to the elderly as infantilizing.
“When we first started using the robot, we received a lot of negative feedback from our staff as well,” says Moyle. “When I spoke at conferences, people would throw things at me because they felt it was inhumane.”
However, the atmosphere surrounding assistive robots has become less hostile these days, as they are utilized in many positive use cases. Robotic companions are bringing joy to people with dementia. Administrators have turned to robot companions like Paro, a small robot resembling a baby harp seal, to help the elderly feel less lonely during the coronavirus pandemic. Fedor's smiling dolls aim to evoke similar friendly reactions, whether they appear sickly or kind.
