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美国国家公共电台 NPR Sometimes We Feel More Comfortable Talking To A Robot

时间:2018-02-28 02:15:45

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SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

As we interact1 more with machines, smart speakers, self-checkout kiosks, I wonder if we'll even start to have relationships with machines. As part of her series on how artists and criminals use technology, NPR's Laura Sydell introduces us to an artist and the robot he created to be a friend.

LAURA SYDELL, BYLINE2: Boxie was a robot that lived at a lab at MIT in Boston. It was made of cardboard3. It was about the size of a microwave oven4. And it rolled around like a toy tank. It would approach people with its big, round, black eyes wide open and ask something like this...

COMPUTER-GENERATED VOICE #1: I'll let you take a look around. Can you take me somewhere interesting?

ALEXANDER REBEN: OK. Let's go upstairs, the third floor.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

SYDELL: Boxie's creator, Alexander Reben, is an artist. He was also working on his Ph.D. at MIT in robotics. One day, he was watching Boxie, and something big happened, something that would change the course of his work. It started with a man walking into the lab.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

REBEN: I remember I saw him from a distance, laying on the carpets in the middle of the lab, talking to this robot on the ground.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: I've never been to Boston before - first time. It's a great little city, although I find myself stranded5 right now.

REBEN: He just started talking to this thing like it was another person.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Because I was supposed to go to Munich today, but the volcano6 in Iceland kind of prevented that. So anyway, I'm just kind of stranded anyway (laughter).

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

SYDELL: That conversation was a revelation8 for Reben. He built Boxie small and light to see if he could get people to move it around. Now he realized that some of the characteristics that made people want to help Boxie also seduced9 them into talking with the robot. It was cute. It seemed vulnerable10. He teamed up with another artist and filmmaker, Brent Hoff, to see if they could design a robot that people would want to open up to. They carved a smile into its face.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

BRENT HOFF: It's the perfect smile. It's kind of a Mona Lisa Smile, it's open and engaging to make sure that that was as nonjudgemental and nonthreatening as possible.

SYDELL: They gave it the sweet voice of Hoff's 8-year-old son.

HOFF: There was some consideration of, like, what are the deepest, most important questions we have as people?

SYDELL: Such as...

COMPUTER-GENERATED VOICE #2: Who do you love most in the world? If you could give someone any gift, what would it be?

SYDELL: And it had a camera and a recorder inside to catch the answers. They called the new robot BlabDroid.

HOFF: The idea is that there's not as much judgment11 in a robot asking you a question as a journalist like yourself, who will come from NPR into the heartland and ask maybe a question that would be maybe answered differently. I don't know if that's true or not. I would like to find out.

SYDELL: So would I. We set up a loose experiment. I would ask people the same questions as BlabDroid. And like the robot, there wouldn't be any follow-up questions. See if you can guess whether this man, Nate Mazur, is talking to me or a robot.

COMPUTER-GENERATED VOICE #2: Who do you love most in the world?

SYDELL: Who do you love most in the world?

NATE MAZUR: My wife. Yeah, my ability to be with her. And that's something that's so precious to me. She makes this a better world - that is a - makes this a better world for me.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

SYDELL: Here's another one.

COMPUTER-GENERATED VOICE #2: If you could give someone any gift, what would it be?

SYDELL: If you could give someone any gift, what would it be?

JUDITH HELFAND: I would give my mother the gift of not worrying about me before she dies. And she wants me to lose, like, a ton of weight and get really, really healthy. And she needs to see that before she dies for her to feel like I'm going to be OK when she's not here. And I wish I could give her that. And I'm not positive I can.

SYDELL: Nate Mazur (ph) had been talking to me. Judith Helfand (ph) was pouring her heart out to BlabDroid. She says she felt more open when she knew there wasn't a person listening.

HELFAND: The robot was just a means to get closer to myself at a really critical moment in my life.

SYDELL: Helfand says it's been over two years since her mother passed away. She's been struggling with her career.

HELFAND: I probably could use the robot right now. You know, meditation13 really isn't working for me, and I can't seem to find the courage to sit and write down what my future plans are so that I can make them really happen. But I bet12 I could do it if I had that little robot asking me those questions instead of me sitting by myself with my computer.

SYDELL: I asked Sherry Turkle, a professor of Science and Technology at MIT, to listen to the responses. She couldn't tell whether people were talking to BlabDroid or me.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

SYDELL: BlabDroid with its sweet voice, Mona Lisa smile, and probing14 questions...

SHERRY TURKLE: It's pushing in us a kind of Darwinian button.

SYDELL: Turkle has been studying human-machine relationships for decades. She says it really doesn't take much to get humans to open up to a robot.

TURKLE: That's what I learned15 - that we are kind of cheap dates.

SYDELL: Turkle says robots don't even have to be cute. In her research, she found a child that vented7 to Apple's Siri on an iPhone.

TURKLE: And talk about her anger towards her sister and towards her parents in ways that she didn't feel she was free to do to her parents because in person, she tries to always play the good daughter.

SYDELL: Turkle says over time, the child wasn't happy.

TURKLE: It was almost a feeling of abandonment, like is this it? There's no place they can go after they get the confession16. They really can't offer the nurturance and the care, the conversation and the empathy. And the robot cannot do that because the robot has not had a life.

SYDELL: The science fiction author William Gibson once said, the future is already here. It's just not evenly distributed yet. In Japan, robots are being used to care for the elderly. Men are having relationships with virtual17 women who exist only in a portable18 video game, even taking them out on dates. An American company has created robot bartenders. Perhaps they will listen to our problems. Reben doesn't think it's all bad. A cute robot might do a better job at getting people to answer questions honestly.

REBEN: Asking about embarrassing19 symptoms before you see a person doctor, explaining those embarrassing symptoms to a machine or a computer or a robot or whatever. People tend to be more honest because they don't feel embarrassed telling that to something that's not human.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

SYDELL: Robots will become more human and more social. What Reben hopes is that his art will provoke20 us to think about how we want to use their power. Laura Sydell, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)


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点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 interact w5Ix9     
vi.相互作用,相互影响,互通信息
参考例句:
  • All things are interrelated and interact on each other.一切事物互相联系并相互作用。
  • The policeman advised the criminal to interact with the police.警察劝罪犯与警方合作。
2 byline sSXyQ     
n.署名;v.署名
参考例句:
  • His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
  • We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。
3 cardboard DTGyB     
n.硬纸板,卡纸板
参考例句:
  • She brought the shopping home in a cardboard box.她将买的东西放在纸箱里带回家。
  • There is a sheet of stiff cardboard in the drawer.在那个抽屉里有块硬纸板。
4 oven iJuxQ     
n.烤炉;烤箱
参考例句:
  • You put food inside an oven to cook it.你把食物放进烤箱里热一下。
  • She baked bread in an oven.她用烤炉烤面包。
5 stranded thfz18     
a.搁浅的,进退两难的
参考例句:
  • He was stranded in a strange city without money. 他流落在一个陌生的城市里, 身无分文,一筹莫展。
  • I was stranded in the strange town without money or friends. 我困在那陌生的城市,既没有钱,又没有朋友。
6 volcano MLxzR     
n.火山
参考例句:
  • The volcano unexpectedly blew up early in the morning.火山一早突然爆发了。
  • It is most risky to go and examine an active volcano.去探察活火山是非常危险的。
7 vented 55ee938bf7df64d83f63bc9318ecb147     
表达,发泄(感情,尤指愤怒)( vent的过去式和过去分词 )
参考例句:
  • He vented his frustration on his wife. 他受到挫折却把气发泄到妻子身上。
  • He vented his anger on his secretary. 他朝秘书发泄怒气。
8 revelation 9BKzQ     
n.泄露,揭示,展示,惊人的新发现
参考例句:
  • Her true nature was a revelation to me.她的真实性格对我是一个新发现。
  • The revelation of the plot of the traitors caused their capture.反叛者阴谋的泄露使他们被捕。
9 seduced 559ac8e161447c7597bf961e7b14c15f     
诱奸( seduce的过去式和过去分词 ); 勾引; 诱使堕落; 使入迷
参考例句:
  • The promise of huge profits seduced him into parting with his money. 高额利润的许诺诱使他把钱出了手。
  • His doctrines have seduced many into error. 他的学说把许多人诱入歧途。
10 vulnerable 4hAwN     
adj.易受伤的,脆弱的,易受攻击的
参考例句:
  • He volunteered to protect her as she looked so vulnerable.她看上去很脆弱,他就主动去保护她。
  • The company is in an economically vulnerable position.该公司目前经济状况不稳定。
11 judgment e3xxC     
n.审判;判断力,识别力,看法,意见
参考例句:
  • The chairman flatters himself on his judgment of people.主席自认为他审视人比别人高明。
  • He's a man of excellent judgment.他眼力过人。
12 bet ddZy8     
v.打赌,以(与)...打赌;n.赌注,赌金;打赌
参考例句:
  • I bet you can't do this puzzle.我敢说,你解决不了这个难题。
  • I offered to bet with him.我提出与他打赌。
13 meditation yjXyr     
n.熟虑,(尤指宗教的)默想,沉思,(pl.)冥想录
参考例句:
  • This peaceful garden lends itself to meditation.这个恬静的花园适于冥想。
  • I'm sorry to interrupt your meditation.很抱歉,我打断了你的沉思。
14 probing CkTzvr     
a.好探索的,尖锐的
参考例句:
  • He didn't like the media probing into his past. 他不愿意媒体追问他的过去。
  • They asked a lot of probing questions . 他们提了许多盘根问底的问题。
15 learned m1oxn     
adj.有学问的,博学的;learn的过去式和过去分词
参考例句:
  • He went into a rage when he learned about it.他听到这事后勃然大怒。
  • In this little village,he passed for a learned man.在这个小村子里,他被视为有学问的人。
16 confession 8Ygye     
n.自白,供认,承认
参考例句:
  • Her confession was simply tantamount to a casual explanation.她的自白简直等于一篇即席说明。
  • The police used torture to extort a confession from him.警察对他用刑逼供。
17 virtual yhfwi     
adj.实质上的,事实上的,实际上的
参考例句:
  • This reply is a virtual acceptance of our offer.这一回答实质上是接受了我们的建议。
  • At that time the East India Company was the virtual ruler of Bengal.那时东印度公司是孟加拉的实际统治者。
18 portable GOkxY     
adj.轻便的,手提式的;n.便携的东西
参考例句:
  • I have a portable typewriter.我有一个便携式打字机。
  • There is a pretty portable pair of steps in one corner of the room.屋角放着一架小巧玲珑的折梯。
19 embarrassing ut4ztI     
adj.使人尴尬的,令人为难的v.(使)窘迫,(使)局促不安( embarrass的现在分词)
参考例句:
  • His jokes didn't even raise a smile, which was embarrassing. 听了他讲的笑话,都没人笑一下,真是太尴尬了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • I was in the embarrassing position of having completely forgotten her name. 当时我完全忘记了她的名字,很是尴尬。 来自《简明英汉词典》
20 provoke 4BzyW     
v.激起,引起,对...挑衅,激怒
参考例句:
  • Don't provoke him to anger.别招他生气。
  • Don't provoke the animal by teasing,It may bite you.不要挑逗动物,它会咬你的。

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