A recent video shared on Twitter has caused some concern due to its interesting theme. A team of programmers successfully equipped a Boston Dynamics robot dog, known as Spot, with OpenAI’s ChatGPT, as well as Google’s Text-to-Speech voice modulation. This allows Spot to literally speak to its owners and answer their questions.
Santiago Valdarrama, a machine learning engineer, and his colleague had programmed the robot dog as part of their mission which required reading of miles-long configuration files that only engineers can understand. This is where ChatGPT comes in, as it enables them to query the data by showing it the configuration files and mission results. With the combination of voice-enabled interface, the robot dog can now provide amusing responses with an added gesture such as shaking its head to say no or bowing to say yes.
Although it may provide a humorous moment, some netizens are concerned with the development of artificial intelligence as seen in Spot’s response. In response to the Twitter post,Washington Post columnist, Philip Bump, expressed his concern with a witty comment that refers to the potential robotic uprising. Another user replied by sharing a GIF of a humanoid robot holding a machine gun, jokingly stating that “one day we will look back and point to this day as a pivotal point.”
In February, Microsoft and OpenAI had signed a multi-billion dollar deal, emphasizing the importance of incorporating ChatGPT in robot technology. Microsoft, in particular, expressed their optimism for the future in their announcement, hoping to “inspire other researchers to jump into this exciting field.”
OpenAI is an Artificial Intelligence research laboratory founded by the likes of Tesla and SpaceX CEO, Elon Musk, who stepped down as the company’s chairman in 2018. On the other hand, Santiago Valdarrama is a machine learning engineer who is currently located in San Francisco. He has his own YouTube channel as well as a Twitter account, where he actively shares his engineering and programing activities.
