Cast your mind back to 2023, and you might recall seeing Ameca, the so-called world’s most advanced robot, appear on UK TV’s This Morning and create headlines everywhere. Ameca is back, with a second-generation version unveiled at MWC 2024, featuring even more lifelike facial expressions.
I initially became aware of Ameca’s presence at the show when I noticed a crowd of gawking MWC attendees fixated on something. Naturally, I walked over to investigate, and there I saw Ameca in all its semi-skeletal splendor, answering questions thrown at it by MWC employees – and leaving me with the eerie impression that I’d wandered onto the pre-production set of Ex Machina.
The robot use generative AI to respond to questions in real time, ranging from basic ones like ‘how old are you?’ to sillier ones like ‘can you dance?’ – reader, Ameca can dance, and probably better than the typical nightclub goer.
All in good fun, but when Ameca was questioned if it had feelings, the demo got very astounding. It responded with a variety of facial emotions, all of which appeared to be incredibly realistic, and I could imagine robots becoming a part of our future.
Ameca fumbled over a few questions, partly because it was attempting to keep up with a bombardment of prompts and requests. But its knowledge of common language was rather good, and the phrases it used in combination with its replies were genuine enough that you didn’t feel like you were talking to a jumble of cables, chips, and servo motors. Similarly, there is still some distance to go until the ‘uncanny valley’ sensation is gone.
Nonetheless, witnessing Ameca operate in the (robot) flesh is astounding and not as disturbing as one might imagine – sure, one can’t help but think of the mediocre I, Robot film, but that feeling is quickly forgotten as one watches Ameca work.
Ameca’s designer, UK-based Engineering Arts, does not aim for robots to replace humans, which is a comfort given the current concern that generative AI may displace jobs. Rather, the corporation aims to use it to improve robotics research. However, it believes Ameca will eventually be used in the real world as a robotic receptionist helper or social care assistant alongside humans.
Such a scenario is probably a long way off, but Ameca will act as a platform for AI technology, potentially leading to smarter robots that are genuinely valuable to our society. Either that, or we will all have robot butlers before long.
