Defining Robot Autonomy and Purpose

not. John, Listter Santiago wrote into a robot at the incomparable dot com and said, I just saw this wolf inspired thing that some people are calling a robot and I think we need your ruling. My first reaction was it's not a robot but a vehicle, but then I realized it's controlled by body movement and AI and has no real steering. and I started having doubts A horse could be a vehicle, but also an individual with a certain amount of decision making. Isn't this similar? The rider will try to control it, but in the end, the AI is the one interpreting those actions and deciding on a course of action. Isn't this? what robots do. Anyway, I hope you can make a ruling on this wolf bike maybe robot thing. Greetings, Santiago. So this is Kawasaki has a prototype thing that is like It looks sort of like a wolf. It's got legs and it looks sort of like if you think about those Boston dynamics robots that we see that look like dogs. It's kind of like that, but a little wider with a saddle And the idea is that it's a difficult terrain vehicle for people to ride but then it is navigating with some and I think Santiago makes a good point here, kindind of like a horse or something. you know, it's got its own mind you know, or AI algorithm here, but a human is also kind of giving it some input. But it's not saying step there now step there. It's sort of more kind of some body language movement. What I think this is kind of interesting because it does sort of seem, I mean, leaving aside the is it a vehicle or not? because I think that's a red herring here this This strikes me as maybe being u in our in our ballpark because the movements it has to do and and its judgment is kind of autonomous like a horse would be It's not a control car, if that makes sense. What do you think Thence is, the horse still works within no first mount it This is not a robot. That's true. If it just sits there waiting for a person to get on it, then it is just a very fancy motorcycle with legs Uh yeah, I get that you're like, oh, you don't steer it. you just kind of lean with your body and then the legs figure out where to go and yada yada. Well, you know, There's a million ways that you could potentially control a vehicle to make it go the directions you want. I mean, you can lean on a sled and it turns in one direction or the other. I don't know though, because like horses yeah, horses are alive, so they do other things. But if this thing can walk around with a person on it, presumably it can walk around without a person on it.. I mean, to what end, like it would have no purpose and like go get somebody B back It has nothing to do. It has no job, It has no purpose. It has no decisions to make. It has no task assigned to it It's just could for example, put food on its back and tell it to deliver it to an address, then it would be a robot. But it seems like this thing does not have that capability. It seems like its only ability is You get on my back and you tell me when to go, when to stop, when to turn left, when to right now. The way you tell me and the way I accomplish that is cool and interesting But it's not a robot unless it can do something else without a personing on it. So So if it's if it's able. So the question would be if you can take the Kawasaki wolf inspired thing and say, oh, somebody twisted their ankle down there. G get them. And and it's able to go find that person and then bend down and get them to And they can get on the back and then it bring it back. thenen it's got Robot. But otherwise it's more just a vehicle, a cool, interesting weird vehicle, but just a vehicle Okay. Otherwise, imagine just throwing an electric motorcycle down into the gully with the person. Good luck, Helpful maybe, but the motorcycle is gonna just lay there and wait for the person to eat you know, right Rot or not