Robot mates and LLM conversations
2024-04-06 18:30:00 +07:00 by Mark Smith
It seems Apple might be getting into the home robots business. It makes a lot of sense. Their recently failed self driving car initiative has had them in the vague ballpark of robots, so perhaps they are thinking they might be able to pivot. It certainly could be a big market. Imagine a world where most households have a house robot. They might even cost about the same as a car if they can do laborious household tasks like laundry, cleaning, and cooking.
People are pretty intrigued and excited about the possibilities. There's an interesting segment on the latest All-in Podcast about household robots. Skip to 49:20 for the robots bit.
No doubt Apple would make the best robots out there. Certainly if their attention to detail and quality is the same as with the Vision Pro. Home robots are notoriously difficult to get right, there are many potential dangers if they are to be around humans for long periods of time in a home setting.
I wonder whether it would be a good idea to start small. Not literally in size but in functionality, but while riding the current LLM / AI wave.
I was sitting in a cafe yesterday alone, and it occurred to me while looking at the empty seat in front of me, that it would be kind of cool if there was a humanoid robot that just sat at a table and had a drink with you while chatting about random shit. I reckon the current LLM models are basically good enough for such a robot mate. Instead of typing into an annoying chat prompt, you would actually talk to a robot. Wouldn't that be cool?
That's how it would start out, but it would give the developers time to work on facial expressions and body language, and work towards more advanced functionality. Just an idea. I think you'd be able to get something functional to market very quickly and safely. Might even be a good approach for some of the startups in the space.
Sometimes starting with something basic but fun is the best approach.