
Robot: I Now Have Common Sense. Engineer: Great, Go Fetch Me a Sandwich - ph0rque
http://singularityhub.com/2011/10/08/robot-i-now-have-common-sense-engineer-great-go-fetch-me-a-sandwich/
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robertskmiles
The part that really interested me was the process by which a robot orders a
sandwich and pays for it. Unfortunately, the video fast-forwards through that
bit. The way the cashier looks at the cameraman suggests that there was some
human assistance there.

My point is that encoding probabilities about locations isn't enough. When the
robot knew that the fridge was a probable place for a sandwich, it also knew
how to open the door of the fridge, and that this was a required action to
obtain a sandwich in that location. "Open the fridge door and look for a
sandwich" is analogous to "Talk to the cashier and order a sandwich", but it
seems like the robot can't do that yet. Subway also sells drinks, and if the
person had asked for a drink, and subway had been found to be a probable
location for a drink, the actions needed at the subway would need to be
different to get a drink rather than a sandwich.

It's cool research, and very useful, but it's worth pointing out that this
robot can't yet actually fetch a sandwich from subway unassisted.

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burgerbrain
The robot is currently able to go to the fridge to pick out specific beers. I
don't see why a sandwich would present much more difficulty.

 _"it's worth pointing out that this robot can't yet actually fetch a sandwich
from subway unassisted."_

I think that sentences like this are actually being written these days is
pretty damn impressive in itself.

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ComputerGuru
I'm really not seeing anything impressive here. There's zero "true" AI at
work, and common sense is actually the cornerstone of true AI.

The robot still needs to be told the existence of subway and the probability
of getting a sandwhich there. It can't deduce for itself that the new
restaurant across the street has sandwiches.

Edit: please don't downvote because you think my opinion doesn't coincide with
your awe at seeing a robot buy a sandwich.

~~~
rcfox
You've fallen victim to the AI effect.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI_effect#AI_is_whatever_hasn.2...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI_effect#AI_is_whatever_hasn.27t_been_done_yet)

People still need to be told where sandwich shops are. If you walk by any
given commercial space, you either need to see that it is indeed a restaurant,
or have an explicit mention of sandwiches in order to make a guess at the
probability of being able to get one there. Reasoning about restaurants isn't
the purpose of the research presented here though.

There is no one thing called AI. AI could involve one or more of search
algorithms, object recognition, parsing, statistical reasoning, state
machines, and several other things. None of these on their own would be
considered AI, but their research is crucial to developing AI.

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thom
Ah, for a second there I thought Cyc had delivered something truly
interesting.

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aufreak3
Actually it will be interesting and useful if an automaton displayed "common
sense" _merely_ in the programming world!

"Hey, make me a web app with twitbug authentication and google payment
integration."

Wouldn't you like it if it finds you aren't registered as a developer, applies
to twitbug, waits for approval, follows up when approval is received (or
whatever that process turns out to be) by creating a stub application, creates
an Amazon account on your behalf, sets up a server and launches a proto web
app using what it knows to be your favourite setup, or just decides for itself
based on what others think is a good idea to use and a while later goes "TADA!
Here you go!"?

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jgeralnik
And he didn't even have to use sudo!

~~~
thebooktocome
Sounds like a permission escalation attack vector to me!

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velocicopter
The moment we make a robot capable of reliably fetching a sandwich it will no
longer be ethical for us to order it around (at least, not without paying a
salary).

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bdonlan
What if the robot really enjoys fetching sandwiches? Sure, that may be because
we programmed it to enjoy (experience a high fitness value for) obeying
orders, but once we've created such a being, do we not have an ethical
obligation to order it around, so that it can feel enjoyment?

Why should we go out of our way to build robots with similar ideas of what is
pleasurable to us?

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philh
To me, "ordering it around" implies the threat of negative consequences if it
refuses. If it really enjoys fetching sandwiches, there's no reason we
shouldn't ask it to; but if it decides for whatever reason that it doesn't
want to fetch sandwiches even though it really enjoys doing so, we can't say
"fetch me that sandwich or I'll activate your disutility circuits".

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sbierwagen
Ugh, singularityhub.

Willow Garage does, in fact, have a blog. And they did, in fact, post about
this four days ago: [http://www.willowgarage.com/blog/2011/10/04/jsk-and-tum-
teac...](http://www.willowgarage.com/blog/2011/10/04/jsk-and-tum-teach-
pr2-fetch-you-sandwich-subway)

Did singularityhub mention the original source? No, of course not.

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sp332
Willow Garage isn't the original source. They made the platform, but the
developers of the "common sense" system, the owners of this robot, and the
people who actually made the video, are from the University of Tokyo JSK Lab
and Technische Universität München. If you read the link you posted, you would
see that Willow Garage properly credits them as the original source.

Edit: Also, the fourth word in TFA is a link to Willow Garage. Your entire
post is wrong.

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Helianthus
Uh. The difference between writing a 'probability map' that says fridges and
subways are good places to find sandwiches, and telling the robot to go to the
fridge and to subway, are not so clear to me. Having the robot modify that
probability map with no guidance--now that would be cool.

