If you think back to 2023, you may remember seeing Ameca, the so-called most advanced robot in the world, appear on UK television. This morning and make headlines everywhere. Now Ameca is back, with a second-generation version to be shown at MWC 2024, complete with even more realistic facial expressions.
The first time I was alerted to Ameca's presence at the show was when I saw a crowd of MWC attendees gaping and transfixed by something. Naturally, I headed over to investigate, and there I beheld Ameca in all his semi-skeletal splendor, answering questions posed to him by MWC attendees, and leaving me with the strange feeling that he had entered the pre-production set of ex machina.
The robot uses generative AI to react to questions in real time, from basic questions like “how old are you?” to sillier questions like “can you dance?” – Reader, Ameca knows how to dance, and probably better than the average nightclub goer.
All in good fun, but it was when Ameca was asked if he had emotions that the demonstration became truly impressive. He responded with a lot of facial expressions, all of them very realistic, and that's when I could really see that robots were becoming part of our future.
Ameca stumbled over a few questions, mostly because it was trying to keep up with an avalanche of prompts and queries. But his natural language understanding was quite skillful and the expressions he displayed along with his responses were realistic enough that you didn't feel like you were just talking about a bunch of wires, chips and servo motors. Likewise, there is still a long way to go before the “uncanny valley” feeling is overcome.
However, seeing Ameca work in the flesh (robot) is impressive, and not as creepy as one might think; Of course, you can't not think about the mediocre I robot movie, but that feeling is soon put aside when one watches Ameca at work.
Ameca's creator, UK-based Engineering Arts, does not intend for robots to replace humans, which is a relief as there is already enough concern that generative AI could replace jobs. Rather, the company intends it to be used to advance robotics science. That said, he believes Ameca will eventually find real-world use as a form of robotic receptionist or social care assistant, alongside humans.
That future is likely still far away, but Ameca will serve as a platform for artificial intelligence technology, which in turn could lead to smarter robots that could be truly useful to our society. That or we'll all have robot butlers before long.
