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Spot doesn't just run and dance anymore. He's talking!
We've seen Spot run, jump, and even dance... but now we can see how Spot talks. In a slightly disturbing video released by Boston Dynamics, the robot dog was decorated with a top hat, mustache, and spring-loaded eyes. He communicates with employees of the company with a British accent, guiding them around the company's territory. "Shall we begin our journey?" Spot asks. "The charging stations where Spot robots rest and charge are our first point of interest. Follow me, gentlemen." As shown in the demo, Spot is able to answer questions and even opens its "mouth" to create the illusion of conversation.
In order for Spot to "talk", Boston Dynamics used the OpenAI ChatGPT API, as well as some open big-language models to thoroughly train its responses. Then they equipped the robot with a speaker, added text-to-speech features, and made its "mouth" mimic speech "like a doll's mouth."
Matt Klingensmith, chief software engineer at Boston Dynamics, says the team gave Spot a "very concise scenario" for each of the rooms in their premises. The robot then combined this scenario with images it receives from the cameras on its capture and body, allowing it to "get more information about what it sees before forming a response." According to the company, Spot uses visual question-answering models to essentially caption images and answer questions about them.
The video also shows that Spot can assume a variety of personalities, including a 1920s archaeologist, a teenager, and a Shakespearean time traveler. He even displays a sarcastic personality, who, when asked to come up with a haiku, said, " The generator hums softly in a room devoid of joy. Just like my soul."
Boston Dynamics says it found a few surprises when experimenting with Spot as a tour guide. In one case, the team asked Spot who his "parents" were, and he went to a place where old Spot models are displayed in the company's office.
"We are excited to continue exploring the intersection of artificial intelligence and robotics," Klingensmith wrote in a post on the Boston Dynamics website. "These models can help provide cultural context, general common sense knowledge, and flexibility that can be useful for many robotic tasks."
While Spot may sound and look pretty funny in the video, it's hard not to think about the robot dog's ability to open doors and keep an eye on people. After all, it is used as a tool for the police and army.
We've seen Spot run, jump, and even dance... but now we can see how Spot talks. In a slightly disturbing video released by Boston Dynamics, the robot dog was decorated with a top hat, mustache, and spring-loaded eyes. He communicates with employees of the company with a British accent, guiding them around the company's territory. "Shall we begin our journey?" Spot asks. "The charging stations where Spot robots rest and charge are our first point of interest. Follow me, gentlemen." As shown in the demo, Spot is able to answer questions and even opens its "mouth" to create the illusion of conversation.
In order for Spot to "talk", Boston Dynamics used the OpenAI ChatGPT API, as well as some open big-language models to thoroughly train its responses. Then they equipped the robot with a speaker, added text-to-speech features, and made its "mouth" mimic speech "like a doll's mouth."
Matt Klingensmith, chief software engineer at Boston Dynamics, says the team gave Spot a "very concise scenario" for each of the rooms in their premises. The robot then combined this scenario with images it receives from the cameras on its capture and body, allowing it to "get more information about what it sees before forming a response." According to the company, Spot uses visual question-answering models to essentially caption images and answer questions about them.
The video also shows that Spot can assume a variety of personalities, including a 1920s archaeologist, a teenager, and a Shakespearean time traveler. He even displays a sarcastic personality, who, when asked to come up with a haiku, said, " The generator hums softly in a room devoid of joy. Just like my soul."
Boston Dynamics says it found a few surprises when experimenting with Spot as a tour guide. In one case, the team asked Spot who his "parents" were, and he went to a place where old Spot models are displayed in the company's office.
"We are excited to continue exploring the intersection of artificial intelligence and robotics," Klingensmith wrote in a post on the Boston Dynamics website. "These models can help provide cultural context, general common sense knowledge, and flexibility that can be useful for many robotic tasks."
While Spot may sound and look pretty funny in the video, it's hard not to think about the robot dog's ability to open doors and keep an eye on people. After all, it is used as a tool for the police and army.