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The future is apparently here. And it's creepier than we ever imagined—even when we were playing around with tethering Teddy Ruxpin to the Internet. A Japanese company called Vinclu ("a company that makes crazy things and supports crazy people") is now taking pre-orders from Japan and the United States for a new interactive, artificial-intelligence driven home automation system. Called Gatebox, the new Internet-of-Things product takes Amazon's Alexa, Google Home, Spike Jonze's film Her , and the "holographic" anime characters of Vocaloid concerts to their unified natural conclusion.
Wait, what?
Gatebox, priced at ¥321,840 (about $2,700 US), is squarely targeted at young lonely salarymen and all brands of anime-obsessed otaku—promising the experience of "living with your favorite character." The size of a home coffee-maker, with a footprint no larger than a sheet of A4 printer paper, the device's main feature is a clear projection tube that displays a computer-animated avatar for the AI's "character." Vinclu apparently is planning multiple possible personalities for Gatebox—which, as part of the device's backstory, is a gateway to the dimension the character lives in.
A company like this could release the first strong AI product (kawaii slave?).
Beginner's definition of "waifu" for the uninitiated.
Update: Another article indicates that "[There's also] HDMI and PC inputs to allow the owner to make their own modifications and create their own characters."
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Wednesday December 21 2016, @01:19AM
How far from "strong AI"? Probably about 15 years. But that's won't be available on anything an end-user could afford (except, possibly, over the internet).
If you mean how long until local strong AI, that depends on hardware advances. I think we can be pretty sure that super-computers will be able to run strong AI programs when they show up, but for anything smaller it gets more dubious. And probably 20 years at a minimum.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by takyon on Wednesday December 21 2016, @03:58AM
A hybrot [wikipedia.org] has got to be the best shortcut to local strong AI [soylentnews.org].
Of course, any such advance will be bitterly opposed by the U.S. government. If they treated encryption like a munition, they'll treat local strong AI like an atomic bomb.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]