第24期：a robot caregiver

Breazeal has dedicated her career to social robots, starting as a grad student at M.I.T. 布雷齐尔一直致力于研究社交机器人，这从她在麻省理工学院读研究生时就开始了。 When she was younger, she didn’t understand why NASA was sending robots to Mars but they still hadn’t arrived in people’s homes. 轻些的时候，她不明白为什么国家航空航天局都要把机器人送到火星了，机器人却还没有进入人们家中。 It’s because those robots weren’t designed to be social, she reasoned. 她推断，原因是那些机器人的设计用途不是社交。Breazeal went on to build the first social robot, which was called Kismet and intended for children. 后来，布雷齐尔打造出首款社交机器人，名为“凯斯梅特”，意在供儿童使用。 She has since published numerous studies on social robotics and in 2010 delivered a TED talk on the subject. 此后，她发表了关于社交机器人的大量研究成果，并在2010年就该主题在TED大会上发表了演讲。 People respond to human-like robots the same way they respond to people, she argued, and robots with the ability to convey expression increase empathy, engagement, and collaboration among people in a way that a robot with a flat demeanor8) cannot. 她认为，人们对类人机器人的回应方式和他们对真人的回应方式一样，能够传达表情的机器人可以增进人们的同理心、感情交流和合作，这是举止沉闷的那种机器人做不到的。 Jibo is purposely designed to not resemble a human, Breazeal says. 布雷齐尔说，吉波被特意设计成不像人类的样子。 The goal is to create what she calls a humanized experience, “because that’s what empowers people,” she says. 这样做的目的是创造一种她所谓的人性化体验。“因为这才是给人以力量的东西。”她说。 Robots that try to look like human beings end up being a little too science fiction. 试图接近人类长相的机器人终究显得有点太科幻。 Artificial intelligence has certainly been top-of-mind for many Americans, both because of the film Her and ever-present economic fears that robots will make our jobs redundant. 人工智能无疑是许多美国人最为关注的一个话题，一方面是因为电影《她》，另一方面是一直以来人们在经济方面的担忧，担心机器人将使我们人类丢掉工作。 A recent New York Times article, “The Future of Robot Caregivers,” sunnily outlined how robots could lighten the burden of caring for aging baby boomers: 《纽约时报》最近刊登了一篇题为《机器人护理员的未来》的文章，文章乐观地概述了机器人将如何照顾步入晚年的婴儿潮一代，减轻人们的负担： “In an ideal world, it would be: Each of us would have at least one kind and fully capable human caregiver to meet our physical and emotional needs as we age. But most of us do not live in an ideal world, and a reliable robot may be better than an unreliable or abusive person, or than no one at all.” “在理想的世界里，情况是这样的：当我们变老时，我们每个人都至少有一位善良又非常能干的护理员来满足我们身体和情感上的需求。但我们大多数人并非生活在理想世界里，而与不可靠或是粗暴的人相比，或者与根本无人照料相比，一个可靠的机器人可能会更好。” In Japan, robots help with a nursing shortage by conversing with patients that have dementia9). 在日本，机器人与痴呆症患者交谈，缓解了护士短缺的问题。 Similar life-helper robots can be found in Sweden and around Europe, according to the Times. 据《纽约时报》称，瑞典等欧洲国家都有类似的生活辅助型机器人。 Not everyone welcomes this development. 并非人人都欢迎这种新发展。“第三个机器时代就是这么搞砸的。” “This how to fail the third machine age10),” wrote Zeynep Tufekci, a sociology professor at the University of North Carolina’s iSchool, in response to the article. 北卡罗来纳大学信息学院社会学教授泽伊内普•图菲克希撰文回应了《纽约时报》的文章。 “In my view, warehousing elderly and children—especially children with disabilities—in rooms with machines that keep them busy, when large numbers of humans beings around the world are desperate for jobs that pay a living wage is worse than the Dickensian nightmares of mechanical industrialization; “在我看来，将老人和儿童——特别是残疾儿童——安置在房间里，让机器人陪他们忙活，与此同时世界各地有很多人拼命想找份维持生计的工作，这真是比狄更斯式机械工业化的恶梦更糟糕， it’s worse than the cold, alienated workplaces depicted by Kafka.” 比卡夫卡笔下冷漠异化的工作场所更糟糕。”“It’s an abdication11) of a desire to remain human, to be connected to each other through care, and to take care of each other.” “这放弃了保持人情味的愿望，通过关心来彼此联系的愿望，以及人们相互照顾的愿望 Tufekci argues that based on unemployment figures, we’re not facing a shortage of caregivers. 图菲克希认为，基于失业率数据，我们面临的问题不是护理员短缺。 Rather, she writes, “we’re facing a shortage of caring.” 相反，她写道，“我们面临的是关怀短缺”。 Meanwhile, a new study from Pew Research suggests that tech industry influencers are split on whether robots will help or hurt the economy. 同时，皮尤研究中心的一项新研究表明，对于机器人会促进经济发展还是有损经济发展，科技行业有影响力的人们之间存在分歧。