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Robots invade holidays … but don’t take over

Kai Ryssdal Dec 3, 2014
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Robots invade holidays … but don’t take over

Kai Ryssdal Dec 3, 2014
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When it comes to this holiday season, the future is now.

“We’ve been talking about robot helpers in the home for decades…. And we’re kind of finally getting there,” says Marketplace Tech host Ben Johnson.

A company called ECOVACS recently sold 70,000 robotic vacuums in one day. What’s more, Amazon will use its new Kiva robots to help ship packages on time this holiday season.

But that doesn’t mean robots are ready to take over yet. According to Johnson, artificial intelligence just isn’t there yet. Just ask Ryan Calo at the University of Washington.

“It is a non-trivial task for the robot even to understand what is a part of your desk,” Calo says.

If robots can’t figure out how to organize your desk, we probably don’t need to worry about the robot apocalypse just yet.

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