第23期：He Laughs, Learns, and Has Impeccable Manners. Oh, and He’s a Robot

At first glance, Jibo looks a bit like Wall-E1)’s robot girlfriend. 乍看上去，吉波跟瓦力的机器人女友有点像。 Both Jibo, a real robot, and Wall-E’s girlfriend, the fictional Pixar character, have the look of a futuristic Apple product: reflective white plastic, round curves, a black screen for a “face,” and smooth swiveling2) movements. 无论是吉波——一个真正的机器人，还是瓦力的女友——皮克斯动画片中虚构的一个角色，外观都像是未来范儿的苹果产品：反光的白色塑料、圆滑的曲线、一块黑色屏幕做成的“脸”以及流畅的旋转动作。 But Jibo’s raison d’être3) is slightly more in line with Rosie, the robot maid from the 1960s animated television series The Jetsons, 但就其存在的意义而言，吉波略微更接近罗西——20世纪60年代动画系列片《杰森一家》中的机器人女仆； and its operating system is more akin to the one employed by Samantha, the artificially intelligent character from the 2013 Spike Jonze film Her. 而吉波的操作系统更类似于萨曼莎采用的操作系统，萨曼莎是2013年斯派克•琼斯执导 的电影《她》中的人工智能角色。 (One key difference: Jibo is male, according to its makers.) (一个主要区别：根据其制造者的说法，吉波是位男性。) Jibo is described as a “family robot” because it is able to see, hear, speak, learn, and help families with a variety of tasks around the house. 吉波被称作“家用机器人”，因为它能看、能听、能说、能学，而且能帮家庭成员处理家里的各种事务。 It—he?—can “relate ” by expressing itself in natural language, using “social and emotive cues so you understand each other better.” 它——他？——可以用自然的语言表达自己的意思，从而“与人互动”，运用“社交和情绪上的暗示，从而使你们能更好地相互理解”。 Jibo is meant to be a companion.Naturally, I had to meet Jibo. 吉波的设计用途是当一个伙伴。我当然得见见吉波。 Off to a hotel room in Midtown Manhattan, then, where two Jibos and Dr. Cynthia Breazeal, the robot’s creator, awaited me. 于是，我去了曼哈顿中城一个酒店的房间，两个吉波机器人及其创造者辛西娅•布雷齐 尔博士在那里等我。 The robot is not yet fully functioning, it turns out. 事实证明，这款机器人的功能还不完善。 I watched a prepared demo where Jibo, about a foot tall, turned to look me in the eye. 我观看了一段事先准备好的演示，演示中，大约一英尺高的吉波扭过头直视我。 This was disarming4) at first, as if I was being followed by a security camera. 一开始这让我很放松，觉得不过像身边跟了个监控摄像头。 Once he started talking to me, it began to feel more natural—as natural as a robot in a 1980s science fiction movie, anyway. 一旦他开始跟我说话，就显得更自然了——反正就像20世纪80年代科幻电影中的机器人那样自然。 Unlike his lesser robotic peers, or, say, a smartphone, Jibo did not rudely buzz or ding when there was a new message to communicate to me. 吉波不同于他那些不那么像机器人的同类或是智能手机，在有新信息向我传达时，他不会发出刺耳的嗡嗡声或叮叮声，而是有礼貌地说：“打扰了，埃琳。” He politely said, “Excuse me, Erin,” and waited for me to respond before continuing. 等我答复之后，他才继续说话。 In the room, Jibo showed off his swiveling, spinning and leaning moves to me, along with some of the programs he’ll feature. 在房间里，吉波向我展示了他的转动、旋转和倾斜动作，还有他将搭载的某些程序。 He ended his performance with a cheesy5) joke , and his eyes turned to tiny half-moons when he laughed at the punch line6). 他用一个俗气的玩笑结束了表演，玩笑里的“包袱”让他笑得眼睛眯成了小月牙。 Jibo can perform a number of functions. He can tell children’s stories and snap family photos using face recognition. 吉波可以发挥许多功能。他会讲儿童故事，也能用人脸识别功能拍摄家庭照片。 He can place Skype calls and handle communications for which you would normally use a phone. 他可以用Skype打电话，并处理一些人们通常用电话进行的交流。 Jibo is meant to stay in the home, perched on a table or countertop, and a demo video shows him greeting a single man when he comes home from work and offering to order Chinese takeout. 吉波的设计初衷是让他待在家里，站在桌子或台面上。在一段演示视频中，一位单身男子下班回家，吉波和他打招呼，并主动询问要不要叫中餐外卖。 In another scene, Jibo is hanging out while a woman kneads7) bread. 在另一个场景中，一个女人在揉做面包的面团，吉波待在一旁。 He chimes in to remind her that her daughter is picking her up soon. 期间吉波插话提醒她说她的女儿很快就会来接她。 “Thanks, Jibo,” the woman responds, not unlike Jane Jetson talking to Rosie. “谢谢，吉波。”那个女人回答道，就像简•杰森在和罗西说话。 Whether that can make a difference—or translate to sales of in-home robots —is up for debate, but if anyone can figure this out, it’s Jibo’s inventor. 至于这些功能有会不会产生什么影响——或促成家用机器人的销售——还有待商榷，但如果说有谁能搞清楚这一点，那应该是吉波的发明者。