ChatGPT recently passed the Turing test, a remarkable experiment devised to test whether humans can tell a computer apart from a human being through conversation alone. And with the rate technology is progressing, it won’t be too long before you won’t be able to tell a real person apart from an android soon, either — although progress is still in the “creepy” stage at the moment.<br /><cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Putting skin in the game" comment="subhead" text="Putting skin in the game"><span data-til="noop">Putting skin in the game</span></cmsannotation><br /><keyword id="22204691" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="artificial-skin" source="keywords">Artificial skin</keyword> has been the holy grail for robotics, considering that scientists and sci-fi artists have a weird urge to make robots appear more human-like. However, the challenge has always been ensuring this skin stays put. Previous attempts such as the usage of "anchors" resulted in unsightly lumps under the skin, compromising the robot's appearance. However, we might have a new game-changer now.<br /><br />Japanese researchers have pioneered a method where the robot's skeleton is peppered with tiny holes. Into these holes, the artificially grown skin extends V-shaped hooks, keeping it snugly in place while maintaining a smooth and flexible surface. This ingenious solution prevents the skin from sagging and retains its lifelike appearance.<br /><br /><div type="Youtube" id="Arh-fkTMkn0" title="Smiling robot face is made from living human skin cells" thumbUrl="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Arh-fkTMkn0/mqdefault.jpg"><url><![CDATA[https://youtu.be/Arh-fkTMkn0?si=LawuhRCI_ox8zdpi]]></url></div><br />Further, the robot’s skeleton is treated with water-vapour plasma to make it hydrophilic, attracting the skin's gel deeper into the holes for a firmer attachment. And yes, this means a robot probably has a better moisturising routine than you.<br /><br />This way of attaching the skin to the robot not only makes the skin more lifelike but also self-repairing — just like our skin! When the skin sustains a cut or scrape, the cultured skin cells can regenerate, mending the damage without external intervention. As a result, minor tears are autonomously repaired, maintaining the robot's smooth and lifelike appearance, and significantly reducing the need for manual maintenance. While the speed of this self-healing process is yet to be quantified, the potential benefits are enormous.<br /><cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="A spooky demo" comment="subhead" text="A spooky demo"><span data-til="noop">A spooky demo</span></cmsannotation><br />In a fascinating yet eerie demonstration, researchers recreated the subtle changes in human skin when smiling. By connecting the artificial skin to a robotic face with a silicone layer beneath, they achieved “inflating cheeks,” mimicking the natural movement of human muscles.<br /><br />The skin seamlessly fitted the 3D mould of a face, with no protruding bolts or hooks. However, more challenges exist.<br /><br />"Firstly, we need to enhance the durability and longevity of the cultured skin when applied to robots, particularly by addressing issues related to nutrient and moisture supply," explained study researcher Shoji Takeuchi. "This could involve developing integrated blood vessels or other perfusion systems within the skin."<br /><br />Improving the mechanical strength of the skin to match natural human skin is also critical. This requires optimising the collagen structure within the cultured skin. Additionally, future artificial skin will need to convey sensory information such as temperature and touch and resist biological contamination.<br /><br />The implications of this research extend beyond creating <keyword id="22204698" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="lifelike-robots" source="keywords">lifelike robots</keyword>. Understanding how facial muscles convey emotion could drive breakthroughs in treating facial paralysis and expand capabilities in cosmetic and orthopaedic surgery. The future of robotics looks more human than ever, and it’s a future that’s closer than we think.<br /><br />The findings of this research have been published in <em>Cell Reports Physical Science </em>and can be accessed <a href="https://www.cell.com/cell-reports-physical-science/fulltext/S2666-3864(24)00335-7?utm_campaign=Press%20Package&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8dGvAdSt0-OYX3KAk9bxxoOAsD9WdZTQmtsNR76Hj4j0I8dNvnePecPlvdpBB_5kqAdbM7ttDxYiNv3j7dgbU65vgtT0QiiqQeQtgBXmpNCbjzk8g&amp;_hsmi=312632330&amp;utm_content=312632330&amp;utm_source=hs_email">here</a>.<br />

Scientists have created robo-skin out of living human cells that can make expressions — and the results are creepy

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Researchers unveiled a smiling humanoid robot with lab-grown, self-healing skin.</li><li>The team from the University of Tokyo used collagen gel to bond living skin tissue to 3D models.</li></ul><p>It's not just nuts and bolts keeping robots together — now they can be made with living skin. Skin that can be made to smile.</p><p>Researchers at the University of Tokyo <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cell.com/cell-reports-physical-science/fulltext/S2666-3864(24)00335-7?_returnURL=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S2666386424003357?showall%3Dtrue#%20">revealed</a> on Tuesday a rather unsettling humanoid robot covered with lab-grown skin. The team said it was able to mimic human skin ligaments by bonding skin tissue to perforated 3D facial molds and 2D robots.</p><p>A press release said the team hoped the advancement would be "useful in the cosmetics industry and to help train plastic surgeons."</p><p>While the development could prove helpful, some people online reacted to the robot's fleshy skin and facial movements with jokes or said they found it disturbing. One person on X <a target="_blank" href="https://x.com/jared_vastine/status/1805653691673780627">wrote</a>, "You will live to see man-made made horrors beyond your comprehension." Another <a target="_blank" href="https://x.com/deanashtonsfoot/status/1805654726773559392">said</a>: "We don't want this. Nobody wants this. Stop it."</p><p>The researchers said that, unlike other materials, biological skin granted these robots self-healing capabilities without requiring triggers such as heat or pressure.</p><p>"Biological skin repairs minor lacerations as ours does, and nerves and other skin organs can be added for use in sensing and so on," said Shoji Takeuchi, a professor at the University of Tokyo who led the research.</p><div type="image" title="Scientists reveal 2D facial robot covered with lab-grown living skin" height="300" width="450" msid="111294791" hostid="261"></div><p>The researchers said other techniques for attaching skin to surfaces, such as using mini anchors or hooks, limited the surfaces they could use<span> and could cause damage.</span></p><p>But they said that by using a "special collagen gel for adhesion," they could apply the skin to any surface, even a curving or moving one — like a smiling robot.</p><p>"The natural flexibility of the skin and the strong method of adhesion mean the skin can move with the mechanical components of the robot without tearing or peeling away," Takeuchi said.</p><p>He said the team hoped to create a thicker and more realistic skin by "incorporating sweat glands, sebaceous glands, pores, blood vessels, fat and nerves." He added that by using devices called actuators to imitate muscle movement, the researchers could create humanlike expressions.</p><p>This is just the latest development in humanoid robotics, which aims to mimic humans' appearance and functions — sometimes falling into the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.wired.com/story/uncanny-valley-robot-voices/">uncanny valley</a>.</p><p>Tesla is developing its <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-tesla-humanoid-robot-optimus-becoming-mans-best-friend-2024-6">Optimus robot</a>, which CEO Elon Musk hopes people will regard "as sort of a friend." Other bots operate on all fours, like Boston Dynamics' <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/boston-dynamics-robot-police-dog-takes-bullet-first-time-2024-3">robotic police dog</a>.</p><p>While you probably don't have to worry about seeing living skin on a production robot anytime soon, the University of Tokyo researchers have at least demonstrated it's possible — even if that means a bit of nightmare fuel for the rest of us along the way.</p>

Robots keep getting creepier

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5b48ab6d45a56e32008b48a2-1605/screen shot 2018-07-13 at 63244 am.jpg" border="0" alt="The iCub robot tries to catch a ball during the Innorobo European summit" data-mce-source="AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani" /><p class="source"><span>AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul class="summary-list"><li><strong>Three top researchers have begun sounding warning bells about the possible negative impacts of AI.</strong></li><li><strong>Andrew Moore, the newly named head of AI at Google Cloud, said he has conceived of "horrible scenarios" that could potentially lead to a public backlash against the technology. </strong></li><li><strong>Other researchers predict AI will lead to more automation in the workplace and reduce job opportunities for humans; and AI will one day enable more intrusion, even into our thoughts.</strong></li></ul><p>Some people quake at the idea of artificial intelligence. It's safe to say that sci-fi films featuring malevolent machines have helped poison much of the public's perception of AI. </p><p>But three experts in the field say there's good reason to feel uneasy. While killer robots are still many years away, AI in some cases could pose an enormous threat to humans, according to Andrew Moore, <span> the dean of the Computer School at Carnegie Mellon University </span>who will soon <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/google-cloud-confirms-ai-chief-scientist-fei-fei-li-to-be-replaced-carnegie-mellon-andrew-moore-2018-9">take over as head of Google Cloud AI</a>.</p><p>In November, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=780&amp;v=r-zXI-DltT8">Moore gave the keynote address</a> for the Artificial Intelligence and Global Security Initiative, and said: "If an AI disaster happens, and that would for instance be an autonomous car killing people due to serious bugs, and frankly I believe that's already happened, then at some point AI systems are going to be locked down for development, at least in the US."</p><p>"There are some even more horrible scenarios - which I don't want to talk about on the stage, which we're really worried about - that will cause the complete lockdown of robotics research," Moore continued.</p><h2>'There are some even more horrible scenarios'</h2><p>Moore's statements come during a time when billions of dollars are being invested in AI.</p><p>Google, Microsoft, IBM, Intel, Amazon, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-aml-head-joaquin-candela-interview-2016-11">Facebook</a>, and others are pushing hard to develop the technology. Sundar Pichai, Google's CEO, once called AI more fundamental to human development than electricity or fire.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5b996799e199f31d138b5818-1139/screen shot 2018-09-11 at 34538 pm.jpg" border="0" alt="Andrew Moore" data-mce-source="The Charlie Rose show" data-mce-caption="Andrew Moore, head of AI for Google Cloud" data-link="https://charlierose.com/videos/29644" /><p class="source"><span><a href="https://charlierose.com/videos/29644">The Charlie Rose show</a></span></p><p class="caption">Andrew Moore, head of AI for Google Cloud</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Nonetheless, a handful of researchers are urging caution and warning that AI misuse could bring serious consequences. </p><p>Last week, Kai-Fu Lee, the former president of Google China, predicted that AI will revolutionize many industries and generate a lot of wealth, but most of it will land in the pockets of a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/beneath-ai-hype-is-likelihood-it-threatens-the-poor-says-former-microsoft-exec-2018-9">relatively small number of people</a>. He warned that with the help of AI, business owners will automate more and more tasks that were once performed by humans.</p><p><span>"So it's actually having a doubling effect...</span><span>creating new AI tycoons at the same time taking away from the poorest of society</span><span>," Lee said at the Artificial Intelligence 2018 Conference in San Francisco.</span></p><p>At the same conference, Meredith Whittaker, <span>cofounder of the institute </span><a href="https://ainowinstitute.org/">AI Now at New York University</a><span> and a leading Google researcher, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/google-meredith-whittaker-ai-mindreading-2018-9">outlined how technologists</a>, including Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, are searching for a means to enable humans to control devices via their thoughts. She predicted that in the not-so distant future, the technology will exist that can interpret and store our thoughts.</span></p><p><span>Whittaker then posed a question to the audience: What would happen if the authorities went to a company who had warehoused its customers' thoughts and subpoenaed a person's thought records? </span><span>She called this possibility "creepy."</span></p><p><span>Along the same "creepy" vein is the increasing ability of AI systems to read human emotions. This is something that Moore said is on the way. </span></p><p><span>"</span>Up until three or four years ago, the advances in computer vision and speech processing were around recognizing people, recognizing objects, and transforming spoken words into underlying written sentences," Moore <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/peterhigh/2017/10/30/carnegie-mellon-dean-of-computer-science-on-the-future-of-ai/">told Forbes magazine</a> last year. "Now we realize we can go farther than that. For example, the cameras in modern cell phones have such high resolution that they can see little imperfections in the face and use them to track all the parts of skin as they move around the face.</p><p>"From tracking all the bits of the skin, you can work out what the muscles are doing under the face," Moore continued. "From what the muscles are doing, using previous knowledge from psychology, you can detect facial action units and micro expressions to get information that we as humans are not even consciously aware of.</p><p>"This means that when in dialogue with a person, we can capture when they are excited, when they are happy, when there are fearful, or when there is a showing of contempt."</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/samsung-foldable-phone-galaxy-x-f-winner-2018-9">Everything we know about Samsung's foldable phone</a></h3>        <div>            <iframe class="bijwplayerclass" data-player="jwplayer" src="https://content.jwplatform.com/players/DoOuwwxI-CEZHWCBG.html" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" scrolling="auto" style="margin:0px;" allowfullscreen=""></iframe><script>function receiveMessage(event){ console.log(event.data.fullscreen); Android.fullscreen(event.data.fullscreen); }window.addEventListener("message", receiveMessage, false);</script>        </div>    </div>

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