Boston Dynamics Gives ‘Spot’ The Robot Dog A Voice, With ChatGPT Smarts
By Nicole Rodrigues, 31 Oct 2023
Boston Dynamics has introduced an intriguing (and kind of unsettling) video featuring Spot, its robot dog, demonstrating it… talking. Yes, it was actually talking and acting as a tour guide of sorts for the robotics firm’s office.
In its updated form, Spot has been equipped with a speaker, microphone, and access to OpenAI’s ChatGPT API, enhancing its capacity for engaging in conversations with humans. Spot’s gripper arm was even turned into a puppet-like mouth and dressed up in quirky accessories such as hats and googly eyes, which didn’t detract from how uncanny valley this all felt.
That didn’t take away from the fact that when it started speaking, its fluent speech and tone made for quite an unnerving feeling as it moved its mouth.
The robot took on different personalities, including a “fancy butler,” a teenage girl, a sarcastic character named Josh, and even a traveling Shakespeare. While all three were pretty spot-on impressions, hearing the voices come out of the “dog” and seeing its mouth move feels a little like stepping into a fever dream, a very technologically advanced fever dream, that is.
If you’re trying to get its attention, all you have to do is use the command, “Hey, Spot!” and it will wake up. To add to that, Spot can also detect where the nearest person is standing and turn its head to speak to them.
Despite that, preparation for the project included scripts tailored for each room, enabling Spot to introduce charging stations and seamlessly integrate with its environment. Beyond mere conversation, Spot also demonstrates its ability to take photographs, ask questions, and generate captions through ChatGPT.
Besides being a tour guide, it could also whip up some poetry, offer compliments, and respond to surprise questions in little to no time. Overall, it had all the makings of an adequate tour guide squeezed into a pretty unorthodox form.
However, the video candidly displays some imperfections, like instances where Spot presented inaccurate information or momentarily disregarded questions before eventually addressing them.
Aside from the minor drawbacks, the demonstration does give us a peak into a (near-ish) future where robots might be able to embody pretty accurate personalities. The question now is if we as humans are ready to deal with such bots daily, or would we rather have the guidance of a human to take us to all the local hot spots?
[via Inverse and PC Mag, cover image via Boston Dynamics]