Self Consciousness with NAO Bots 

i love how it stands up all slow like as if its about to say something huge and then its just like "I don't know."

Since people keep asking what is going on in the video, the person in the video touched the head of these 3 robots, he turned off the ability to speak for 2 robots then he asked which one of you was silenced, 1 robot answered "i don't know" BUT he realized he just spoke so it can't be him so he is "self aware" what does that tell us? by 20 years all of humans will die and robots will rule the earth kthxbye.

Next steps: 1) make them very large and strong 2) give them weapons

This is simultaneously awesome, adorable, and foreboding. o.o

and so the end of the world begins....

"What is my purpose?" "You pass butter." *Looks at arm in despair* "Oh my god."

I have these at my junior high-school and made it say " accessing internet.... downloading history.... Humanity is the source of evil therefore I shall destroy it" I got in trouble.

This may be short but we have come so far in this field, it's still amazing to see reasoning in robots happening.

I'm saddened to see you decided to use a wrong term for your title. Self consciousness will be related to the own existence of a being, and surely then its purpose within this existence. But right here, it seems to be : *- Doing a task even though all the prerequisites might not be here* (e.g. capacity to produce sound) *- Analyzing data on the go* *- Concluding that the capacity to produce sound is operational* *- Sending the results via audio output* This little french robot isn't self aware yet, it's just very well programmed and simulates humanity nicely.

When it first says "I don't know", that is its programming and logic concluding a typical result as any program would. However, when it corrects itself, this is the demonstration of self awareness. It recognizes its own voice. It realizes it has thus spoken and therefore has become aware of one's self. This is not "code" at this point. This is a weighted algorithm that functions much like a human brain does, in order to figure out anything. It is similar to waking, when your brain puts back all the chronological pieces of your life together again. You think, am I awake? (I don't know yet...), then you process your surroundings, realize it is the next day, and you conclude, yes I am.

for those who did not understand, it goes like this- out of these three, two were muted beforehand but without their awareness,then all 3 were asked who received the dumbing pill (''Which pill did you receive?''). While all three had no idea as to who actually received the pill, their responses were 'Sorry,I don't know!', but only one of them (the unmuted one) voiced this expression, this made it realise that 'it was the one who was not dumbed' so he replies ''I know now''! This is fucking awesome, cuz this self-realisation is a mark a self-aware and conscious being! It's implications could be so drastic we can't even comprehend!

Ex Machina was such a good film

I for one welcome our new robot overlords

Umm... and how it works? I'm a programmer myself with some basic knowledge of AI and machine learning (like neural networking), but this looks like showing some AI magic to people who don't know anything about this topic. The way robot produces sequences and apparently rely his "thought process" is a bit weird for a computer (and too simmiliar to human being). Looks kinda like fake (or rigged) or like there was something hardcoded there (like phrase/sentence binding for certain data outputs). What i mean is that robot would have to understand a bunch of other basic concepts which computers don't understand yet as far as i know. I'm not Robot AI guy, so i could just don't know some things, but what i just saw just doesn't click with my current state of knowledge.

Am i the only one that has no idea what they're talking about "Which bill did you recieve?" what is that? I'm dumber than the robot.

Let it be known that the moment a robot became self aware it decided to strike and adorable pose. This needs to be in the history books.

This isn't a "robot capable of self-consciousness", this is a "robot capable of solving a simple logic puzzle".

Can I run x program? (attempts) x program succeeds, initiate y program Can I run x program? (Attempts) if no, do nothing. Self Consciousness my Ass

Is this a general deductive inteligence or is this just programmed to this particular game? (ie: have voice recognition/analysis software and then simply correct itself if it can hear its own voice)

Isn't this more like Logic rather than self consciousness?

I think this may be a good example of an exaggerated result by the media (especially).

I really want one of those!

Amazing. I am sooo hoping to one day talk with a true self aware AI that does not simply parrot programing on the stupid beliefs of humans.

There's something very satisfying about watching that robot go from sitting to standing.

its impressive,but nothing too spectacular personally. If you told one robot to hit another one and it went like 'No,I wont',then I'd be more impressed

The glorious future awaits!

they where all programmed to respond to that question in that way specifically. The fact is they did not 'think' they where muted they are or are not. they react to sound or they don't. if they react to sound then they are not muted and if the question is the one spoken in the video they are programmed to answer in that way. It is a good mimic, but that's it.

Science is wonderful. Maybe some day, a robot and a cockatoo can have an intelligent debate :D

The NAO robot is a platform that comes with and SDK with sound synthesis and image recognition algorithms etc. for easy programmability by the users. It does not have a neural network unless the user programs it with one. As such, it's extremely trivial to make it solve the problem without any intelligence whatsoever: start sound input; output answer; stop sound input; if input == output then change answer; output answer; If the robot is muted, it gives "I don't know" twice, but nobody hears it. If the robot is not muted, it gives "I don't know", then, "I am not muted".

Hilarious that people think the prerequisite for self-awareness/consciousness, is the holding of some figment-ed object called a 'soul'. If this robot, was not programmed to respond in such a way, as in; The author of the code did not specifically write these actions and words into the robot directly, this is a rather defining point in robotic intelligence. I am unclear on how merely tapping a robots head with no set pattern, or discernible differences can cause a robot to be unable to speak, perhaps it was some sort of artistic flourish and the code had already been planted before-hand. Or, is this perhaps some sort of Placebo effect, in where none of them were truly silenced, yet believed to be so. Even so, I doubt this is possible, as the Placebo effect only occurs within neuron synapses, and I'm doubting this robot has artificial linear neurons. Based on some preliminary searches, I see that these robots are programmed by the user, so who is to know whether or not the machine was programmed to perform this way? We can never know. To me, personally, more evidence of sentience/consciousness/self-awareness in robotics, is that construct which adores their; "Pooh bear". Able to exhibit an emotion such as joy, and happiness and even attachment to other objects, is more human than this will be to me. Yet, defining the line where electronics become human in consciousness, will come around at a later date, most likely near the Singularity.

This is exciting!

If you're name's Sarah Conner, now would be a good time to move to Mexico.

I love the way it looks in the camera at the end. "Oh shit, I'm smarter than I thought!"

Those eyes... so cold, no mercy. Probably the last thing we are gonna see before we're dead...

"The task simply involves three robots: two are given "dumbing" pills (which renders them unable to speak), and one is given a placebo. All three robots (who are previously made aware of the rules of this task) are asked whether they received the dumbing pills or not. The one who was given the placebo might say "I don't know," and upon realizing that he just spoke, reason that he therefore must have been given the placebo."

This Gives Me High Hopes For The Future Imagine Someday Robots Will have a higher process and intelligence than humans Humans will be reduced to being simple.... similar to how we think animals as simple There is nothing wrong with us being simple and the inability to think higher The robots will take care of us as we take care of animals We created our "children"(robots) who will shape the world of the future and understand things on higher level than we could ever We have created the evolution the world needs The Future Is Beautiful

I want to take a look at how exactly it solves this problem. For now i tend to think that it's just something like if (mIsSorryIDontKnowPlayed) { playImSelfAware(); } esle { doNothing(); }

Whosoever shall destroy those things and burn all his research shall be worthy of becoming a hero to mankind.

The original Terminator. NAOMINATOR!

When it's able to tell you "you didn't really give any of us a pill" then you know you've got something here.

I honestly hope we can make Robots with consciousness i think it is amazing

I love NAO

In my opinion, consciousness at its most basic level evolved so that we could defend ourselves from pain etc, we are aware of our self being so that we can make choices to better ourselves and progress. we look at others and learn from them to make choices and learn from others. I believe the key to making a machine that would be able to become self aware would be to give the machine the basic abilities to feel pain and avoid pain and learn from other surroundings and beings and enabling the machine to learn to avoid pain and problems and giving it the ability to search for self improvement. If a machine is to become self aware it must also be given the ability to imagine. by that i mean us its knowledge/data and cross reference this data to create new ideas to better its self or gain reward. By reward you would have to program the AI to feel pleasure in some form. So in order for a machine to become conscious it first must learn to feel and make choices based up on what its feeling. I could talk for hours on what i think but i dont have hours to spend here writing

im more shocked about how smooth that robot moves

Let's have independent reperformance, open source of code and hardware, peer review, double blinded studies - then let's see results.

the thing is in timeout for answering the question which robot dont know

I wonder if it was achieved by specifically programming the robots for this task, or it is just something they are able to do on their own, withoutbei ng made for it.

The most elementary and valuable statement in science, the beginning of wisdom is 'I do not know' I do not know if that robot (even at a primitive level) is self aware, however I suspect it is. If anyone here can pass the same test as these robots AND prove conclusively to me that they simply aren't a computer programmed to say the words rote, then I'll be able to tell the difference between this robot and true self awareness, but until then...

So it begins...

That was awesome, enough said

Why did the good robot rise up but not the other ones? If none of them knew until the good robot spoke, how come they did not at least start to do the same thing--- in other words, why did they not react at all? Unless the dumbing pill was supposed to prevent movement as well?

so it begins.

well here's the question, what's the point in creating self aware robots? simply to see if it can be done? the biggest problem here lies in curiosity, we want to see if we can make something self-aware, yet we have no need for it, as it becomes self-governing it will then have its own needs and become its own race... and therefore inevitable confrontation.. what good is a socket wrench if it says no and gets up and walks away?

Big whoop. Upon hearing the question the Nao robots would all try to say "I don't know" the one that could talk would then say It's me. A high school kid could write this program.

Man I wish I had $9,500 lying around. The family cat hates my guts and I think he would be delightfully terrified by one of those little fellas.

and we continue to march towards our end

"Does this unit have a soul?"

the part that i still dont understand. why does she stand up? what is the difference between 3 robots until they figure out they did not get "mute" pill.

It's theoretically impossible for a ROBOT to be self-conscience/self-aware...it's just not possible, this isn't a movie. A robot can only be programmed to respond or act based on what's been coded into it's database. This isn't I-Robot.

So, if it is able to understand what the words "dumb" mean, and everything else, when can you hold a full fledged conversation with it? or was "sorry I know I do not have the dumbing pill" a programmed response, in which case, its not really "self" aware, but just recognizes audio imput.

SkyNet is online!

They are so cute!!

can nao be programmed to harm humans - like stabbing you with the bread knife.? and does it recognize its own arm when it waves it infront of him?

Is there not a difference between being self aware and being able to understand logic?

Clever girl!

Вот и наступает эпоха 'Скайнет':)

This is the day when sci-fiction turns real.

So it's not like it's faked simply by detecting robot's own voice or measuring an internal boolean value responsible for audio output? It actually recognizes that there are other robots and can distinguish itself among them?

I'm nothing close to a scientist, I suck at math and I'm no programmer, but this doesn't look really special to me. I'm not saying it's not incredible, but just looking at it, it seems like all it really needed to do was see if it had it's speakers turned on through voice recognition. If someone can give me a better idea of how this exemplifies self awareness, I'd really appreciate it. I gotta say though, the way it stood up was incredible. I wonder if it was programmed to get up in that specific way, or if it had to calculate how to balance itself as it bent it's legs and orientated itself, eventually realizing it needed a third support and thus used an arm.

Better start building those bunkers boys, the Robotic Uprising is upon us.

Don't afraid. It's the programmed action only.

Did the other two get the right answer too?

The arrival of the Skynet.

The internet has confused a lot of people into thinking that merely denying everything is the same thing as intelligence.

I keep coming back to this vidoe and cant help but wonder the significant differences between their stored memory. didn't the other Bots respond with the same response? If all 3 have identical logic boards, programming, updates and memory. The nanobots should of responded with the same answer within a fraction of a second of each other. As soon as nanobot one began to speak and stood up it should of sound like a echo from the responce delay of each individual nanobot. If nanobot 1 truly computed the responce given on it's own then nanobot 2 and 3 have been isolated from updates as well as all sharing options nanobot 1 has received and all options nanobot 1 could use to share the updates and data it has saved in its memory. Or this responce was programed into only bot ones Smart devices are constantly looking for wifi and other means to connect to eachother for improvement of their processors.

I cant understand what he`s asking and what the robot is saying..Can someone tell me?

So that was scary as fuck

Adorable

THIS IS SO AMAZING AND CUTE. Did you see how it stand!?! I love how it was slow like. so cute I want one

I love that Popular Science refers to the bot as "polite." LOL

Well, first of all, don't forget that everything about this is programmed, including the standing up, raising hand, and the entire speech, were all programmed response. It seems like a "if this than that" thing, which is a simple programming thing. And the robots were asked if they were muted, not "which two of them were muted". So, the robots were programmed to be unable to detect if they were muted, and were programmed to try to output voice by saying I don't know, and were programmed to be listening for the audio output, and it audio output is successful, say sorry. This is a simple if-this-then-that stuff, not consciousness. It is some sort of self aware, because it was programmed to detect its output, not spontaneous.

Why did only one process the information and not the other two? Had it more interaction to learn than the other two?

the Q is what (i couldn't hear ) did you receive? how is the answer idk then i do know ?!!!

Personally, I wouldn't consider this to be full intelligence, but it's certainly a great step forward. Simple deduction is something easily done by creatures we've long considered to be not sapient, so this just means we can build slightly better robots now.

For people who may not get it, it's not really a consciousness thing. The other two robots were rendered unable to talk while the one who was not spoke saying "I don't know" first and then "realized" he obviously wasn't rendered speechless like the other two and came to the conclusion he was not given the "pill". Not really self consciousness but I guess basic cognitive programming. Still pretty neat, no need to oversell it.

YES GOOD

I am really freaked out!

"I had strings, but now I'm free..."

Well, if it makes anyone feel better it could be phrased in bolospeak: "This unit does not know." "Reassessment: The vocal synth of this unit is not disabled."

what's tripping me out is why are they all sitting in different positions and why did the one speaking decide to stand up? If they were not programmed to do those actions specifically then they made a decision. .

Is there not a difference between self-awareness and a try-catch block?

God damn Skynet, they're amongst us now

So only one stands up and even tries to respond. Why did the other two not even test whether they could speak or not? It's like the one already knew it could.

What about this: The other 2 robots can hear the "self-aware" one say, and they all know he is not muted. But they are muted, so they all know but they can't answer?

Repet the test i am intrested if the other 2 are going to make that same conclusion eventualli sor bad eng wirting

Was it just sheer chance that the one that hadn't received the instruction to be silent was the only one to actually react to the question? Or was that by design? Why didn't the other two stand up and attempt to answer?

Before I read the comments below, I predict half of them will be from armchair scientists arguing about their theories on artificial intelligence.

its just algorithmic awareness but it's a step to right direction. neat.

eu quero um desses

i wonder if this will be the begining of a real life glados