The debut of a new ISS AI robot ‘crew member’ went exactly how you’d think

‘I’m sorry, Dave. I’m afraid I can’t do that.’

Earlier this year, the International Space Station got a new “crew member” of sorts: CIMON (Crew Interactive Mobile Companion), an interactive AI assistant that can float around the station and help answer astronauts’ questions — kind of like a specialized spaceflight cross between Amazon’s Alexa and Microsoft’s Clippy.

But CIMON’s debut — seen in a new video release by the European Space Agency — shows an early interaction with the space robot is going, well, exactly the way that every single science fiction movie has prepared you to think it will, via Gizmodo.

The idea behind CIMON is innocuous enough. Developed by IBM in conjunction with Airbus, the robot was designed with two functions in mind: to help astronauts with tasks, like providing visual walkthroughs for part installations (kind of like how an Amazon Echo Show can show you recipe direction), which seems reasonable enough, and as a companion for astronauts to talk to in the loneliness of space, which is where the creepy part sneaks in.

According to IBM, “CIMON also boasts the language skills of C-3PO, the conversation abilities of Marvin (from the Hitchhiker’s Guide series), the cuteness of Wall-E, and the technical know-how of HAL 9000, from 2001: A Space Odyssey—just, you know, without the evil part,” which makes this all a bit more disconcerting. Matthias Biniok, the team lead at IBM, apparently saw 2001: A Space Odyssey, realized that “That’s gonna be a big issue,” and then still programmed a space-bot that will refuse to open the pod bay doors when asked (according to IBM’s site, that is a real Easter egg).

“Don’t you like it up here with me? Don’t be so mean please.”

And as seen in the video, the first few queries from astronaut Alexander Gerst go well enough. But after playing a music stream, CIMON got a little hung up on it: “I love music, you can dance to it.” Attempts from Gerst to get CIMON to move on were similarly rebuffed: “I understand that you like the music, I understand that.”

The ball-shaped robot then accused Gerst of not being nice. “Don’t you like it up here with me? Don’t be so mean please,” in the sort of flat, emotionless tone that one assumes comes right before it gains sentience and starts singing “Daisy, daisy...”

CIMON was programmed to detect Gerst’s emotions, and given a personality that would let it identify the German astronaut and carry on conversations with him. Though researchers working on the project hailed the 90-minute meeting as a success, CIMON’s conversational skills could clearly use some work. Sadly, there won’t be much time for more practice. Gerst is headed back to Earth next month, while CIMON will stay on the space station.

Eventually, Gerst and CIMON were able to get along, at least enough for Gerst to get CIMON to stop its video recording, seemingly staving off humanity’s destruction — at least for another day.

You need to be a member of Ashtar Command - Spiritual Community to add comments!

Join Ashtar Command - Spiritual Community

Email me when people reply –

Topics by Tags

Monthly Archives

Latest Activity

Drekx Omega left a comment on Comment Wall
"Oops that image did not take...Pyramids of Mars....But it's funny how they were putting this topic into 70s sci-fi..
The capital city of Egypt, in modern times, is Cairo, which in arabic is Al-Qāhirah, meaning MARS..as in Victorious, or the…"
4 hours ago
Andromedaner Z left a comment on Comment Wall
"yes, thank you Drekx, great interview, Viktor Orbán is a realist and not blinded by an ideology, no wonder he is a good friend of Aleksandar Vučić (Serbian President) who is doing a great job at not aligning the foreign policy of Serbia (sanction…"
5 hours ago
Drekx Omega left a comment on Comment Wall
"Yes, AI can get things wrong, when it comes to the green agenda....Ask the same question from another angle and AI can even contradict itself......

Trump spells it out, too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uzh_JGkrdPo"
5 hours ago
AlternateEarth left a comment on Comment Wall
"I don't know where it's getting its info from -maybe it was programmed to be biased in this case-"
5 hours ago
AlternateEarth left a comment on Comment Wall
"Movella-supposedly a real pic from Mars
http://images.dailystar.co.uk/dynamic/1/photos/570000/620x/55892f2d..."
6 hours ago
Drekx Omega left a comment on Comment Wall
"Well AE, looks like AI got that wrong about UK oil fields in the north sea, which are actually more abundant than those being exploited next door, by Norway....Plenty of oil to drill, it's simply that the decline started under Cameron's Tories, back…"
6 hours ago
AlternateEarth left a comment on Comment Wall
"this is what the AI says about drilling in the north sea-is this correct Drexk;
🛢️ 1. The UK already drilled heavily

The UK began large-scale North Sea drilling in the 1970s

Fields like Brent Oilfield were major producers

At its peak (late…"
6 hours ago
Love & Joy posted a discussion
  Remember - Emotions Without A Story Are Just.....?A Transmission from Maya of the PleiadesHello my beautiful over-thinking Earthlings,Today Maya wishes to speak about two little secrets that many psychologists forget to put on the dinner table…
7 hours ago
More…