10 Signs That We're Headed For The Robot Uprising

1. Theyre, Er, Self Aware Now

Don't mean to alarm you, but it seems as though robots are developing self-awareness now.

It's still a long road to artificial consciousness, but three humanoid robots called NAO appear to have shown a flicker of self-awareness. The three robots featured are actually old models, but the experiment is new and surprising.

The robots each have a "silencing" feature that will prevent them from making any noise. In the experiment, two of the bots were silenced and one of them was given a "placebo" silencing. All three were then asked to deduce which one of them had received the placebo.

After a few seconds of silence, one of the robots answers "I don't know" out loud. Upon hearing its own voice, that robot can now deduce that it was the one that received the placebo. This requires the robot to understand the question, to be aware of its own voice, and also aware of its status in relation to the two other robots. It even apologises.

Well, at least the uprising looks like it will be a polite affair, see you on the other side.

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