How to Grow a Robot - Developing Human-Friendly, Social AI

"Mark Lee considers that the current gains in machine learning and deep learning will not produce robots that can interact effectively with humans. The book then explores how robots can become more human-like, more general-purpose, and more social. The book introduces us to the core ideas in Developmental Robotics - showing how this new approach can "grow" robots through (their own) experience rather than building them from design. Original aspects include demonstrating that social robots must be embodied, that embodiment will be necessary for general artificial intelligence, and that threats from advanced technology are not inevitable but avoidable by involving human, social, and ethical issues. The material covers a wide scope; from simple robots to advanced AI. This gives an overview of this area and an appreciation of the main advances, problems, and issues. The scope if the readership is intended to be wide: aimed at a general, educated but not specialist audience. For this reason, an engineering viewpoint is adopted; technical details and philosophical aspects are minimized, thus promoting a practical perspective. The aim is to present the fundamental ideas behind AI and robotics in a clear, accessible form, appealing to common sense, so as to encourage the general reader to build their own informed assessment of these technologies. The hope is to reach a wide public readership - reaching anyone who wishes to know what robotics is about, where it is going, and what its limitations are"--