Word: breazeal
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Dates: during 2000-2000
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...Breazeal is attracted to inventing because it is hands-on and real-world. "I would much rather build something and interact with it than philosophize about it," she says. "Or philosophize about someone else doing it." But at the same time, she has used robotics to explore some subtle intellectual issues. At M.I.T., Breazeal has studied brains and cognitive science, and her work with Kismet raises complex issues about how humans think and learn...
...designing Kismet, Breazeal made a critical decision about how she wanted it to develop. There are two rival schools about ways to build robots. One holds that robotmakers should decide in advance what knowledge and skills they want their robots to have and then program them accordingly. Breazeal has a different view. She thinks robots should be designed to learn from experience and from their environment. This socially situated learning, as it is called, allows Kismet to learn much like a human baby would...
...learn from their environment. Humans spend a great deal of time talking to and nurturing young people. Robots do not get that kind of attention and outside stimulation. "We don't learn in impoverished educational environments, but that's what we expect the robot to do," she says. Breazeal has tried to provide Kismet with the tools to engage in this kind of socially situated learning...
Despite all the help from Breazeal, Kismet still has a lot to learn. Breazeal is working on helping the computer with some simple skills that human babies are hardwired for. She wants Kismet to be able to use the information it learns. One day, she hopes, when Kismet is told the name of a toy, it will later be able to ask for it by name. "Through more interactions, Kismet could learn, 'When I'm in this state, I can take this action that leads to a person's taking this behavior and getting my needs satiated,'" Breazeal says...
...they do ask that about Kismet, which raises a painful subject. As Breazeal goes on the job market, she worries about what will become of her long-eyelashed offspring. Though she created Kismet, it is technically M.I.T.'s property. Breazeal is optimistic she will be able to work things out with the university, but she is still anxious. "I really don't know what will happen," she says. "The legal system doesn't have parental rights for robots...