{"id":32382,"date":"2016-12-03T13:48:28","date_gmt":"2016-12-03T21:48:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2016\/12\/robot-babies-from-japan-raise-questions-about-how-parents-bond-with-ai"},"modified":"2017-06-04T09:00:41","modified_gmt":"2017-06-04T16:00:41","slug":"robot-babies-from-japan-raise-questions-about-how-parents-bond-with-ai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2016\/12\/robot-babies-from-japan-raise-questions-about-how-parents-bond-with-ai","title":{"rendered":"Robot Babies From Japan Raise Questions About How Parents Bond With AI"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<p><iframe style=\"display: block; margin: 0 auto; width: 100%; aspect-ratio: 4\/3; object-fit: contain;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/TGgDVvhI5-k?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope;\n   picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Driven by a declining population, a trend for developing robotic babies <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/technology\/2016\/oct\/04\/baby-robot-unveiled-in-japan-as-number-of-childless-couples-grows\">has emerged in Japan<\/a> as a means of encouraging couples to become \u201cparents\u201d. The approaches taken vary widely and are driven by different philosophical approaches that also beg a number of questions, not least whether these robo-tots will achieve the aim of their creators.<\/p>\n<p>To understand all of this it is worth exploring the reasons behind the need to promote population growth in Japan. The issue stems from the disproportionate number of older people. Predictions <a href=\"https:\/\/esa.un.org\/unpd\/wpp\/\">from the UN<\/a> suggest that by 2050 there will be about double the number of people living in Japan in the 70-plus age range compared to those aged 15\u201330. This is blamed on a number of factors including so-called <a href=\"http:\/\/japandailypress.com\/over-3-million-parasite-singles-in-japan-over-35-still-living-with-parents-031659\/\">\u201cparasite singles\u201d<\/a>, more unmarried women and a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/content\/article\/2010\/03\/12\/AR2010031201790.html\">lack of immigration<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>So, what are the different design approaches that are being taken to encourage more people to become parents? These have ranged from robots that mimic or represent the behavior of a baby to robots that look much more lifelike. Engineers at Toyota <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/technology\/2016\/oct\/04\/baby-robot-unveiled-in-japan-as-number-of-childless-couples-grows\">recently launched Kirobo Mini<\/a>, for example, as a means of promoting an emotional response in humans. The robot does not look like a baby, but instead models \u201cvulnerable\u201d baby-like behaviors including recognising and responding to people in a high-pitched tone and being unstable in its movements.<\/p>\n<p><!-- Link: <a href=\"http:\/\/singularityhub.com\/2016\/10\/17\/robot-babies-from-japan-raise-all-sorts-of-questions-about-how-parents-bond-with-ai\/?utm_content=bufferc8fb8&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook-hub&utm_campaign=buffer\">http:\/\/singularityhub.com\/2016\/10\/17\/robot-babies-from-japan...ign=buffer<\/a> --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Driven by a declining population, a trend for developing robotic babies has emerged in Japan as a means of encouraging couples to become \u201cparents\u201d. The approaches taken vary widely and are driven by different philosophical approaches that also beg a number of questions, not least whether these robo-tots will achieve the aim of their creators. [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":411,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-robotics-ai"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/411"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32382"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32382\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59582,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32382\/revisions\/59582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}