At this point, I think it’s safe to say that AI and robots are part of our collective future, whether we’re keen on the idea or not.
They’re eventually going to show up everywhere – including public spaces like our neighborhoods.
Scientists and engineers wanted to find out how people would react to finding a robot suddenly doing something inane, like collecting neighborhood trash, and so they set a few loose in the not-always-hospitable streets of New York City.
Image Credit: YouTube
Authors Fanjan Bu, Ilan Mandel, Wen-Ying Lee, and Wendy Ju said that this was in order to help them “Better understand the range of behaviors and norms that robots will need to manage autonomously in longer-term deployments.”
The researchers, from Cornell University, were pleasantly surprised to see that although some people were violet or rude with the robots, most humans were welcoming or even helpful.
“In general, people welcomed the robots, interacting with them avidly.”
The cameras on the trash bots captured reactions that ranged from a passive middle finger to people feeding the robot trash and helping it out when stuck.
Image Credit: YouTube
On the extreme ends of the spectrum, one person did knock over one of the robots, while one little girl blew one a kiss.
I think anyone who has spent time in NYC would tell you that the experiment definitely could have gone worse.
The team went back and interviewed some of the people who interacted with the robots, all of whom had different things to say.
“Some interviewees treated the robot like a public good and were appreciative of its help. Others thought the robots wanted trash, expecting the robot to be grateful for their ‘contribution’ after disposing of items.”
They said they observed some folks that were “keen to help the robots when they ‘got stuck,’ or even “proactively moved chairs and obstacles to clear a path for the robots.”
Which is to say the rude folks were mostly outliers.
Surprising, perhaps, but maybe it just means we’re all more ready for our robot overlords than we thought.