Workers don't want these humanoid robots telling them to be happy
- Reference: 1678948210
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2023/03/16/work_robots_happiness/
- Source link:
A team of researchers from the University of Cambridge ran experiments and collected data from 26 participants communicating with two different types of robots over four weeks. The robots were programmed to behave identically and improve users' mental health by encouraging them to perform psychological exercises to help them feel more positive, optimistic, grateful, and accomplished.
But despite both robots saying exactly the same phrases and acting in exactly the same ways, the participants felt more warmly about one device than the other. It appears the biggest difference in responses was the appearance of the two robots.
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The QTRobot (QT) has a pair of green eyes and a simple cartoon-drawn mouth projected onto a screen, and has a child-like plastic 90cm-tall body with human-type arms and legs. The Misty robot, on the other hand, has a screen for a face but lacks arms, has wheels instead of legs and is only 36cm high.
QTRobot on the left, Misty on the right … Image credit: Hatice Gunes.
Participants reported their interactions with Misty were more positive than QT. It seemed to be a better listener, was more caring, and behaved more naturally. They perceived the behavior of the robots to be different, even though they were identical.
"These results could be explained by the form function attribution bias," the researchers wrote in a [2]paper [PDF] presented at the ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction> on Wednesday.
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"It could be that since the Misty robot is more toy-like, it matched their expectations," Micol Spitale, first author of the study and a researcher at the University of Cambridge's Department of Computer Science and Technology, [5]suggested in a statement. "But since QT is more humanoid, they expected it to behave like a human, which may be why participants who worked with QT were slightly underwhelmed."
[6]Humanoid robot takes a retail job, but not one any store clerk wants to do
[7]'Robot lawyer' DoNotPay not fit for purpose, alleges complaint
[8]OpenAI claims GPT-4 will beat 90% of you in an exam
[9]Why ChatGPT should be considered a malevolent AI – and be destroyed
Users reported QT as having no personality, but reacted more positively to Misty's voice and gestures, despite their programming being exactly the same. The biggest roadblock to how effective these machines were at uplifting employees at work, however, was their communication abilities, according to Hatice Gunes, a robotics professor who led the research.
"The most common response we had from participants was that their expectations of the robot didn't match with reality. We programmed the robots with a script, but participants were hoping there would be more interactivity. It's incredibly difficult to create a robot that's capable of natural conversation. New developments in large language models could really be beneficial in this respect."
The researchers believe that more attention should be paid to the design and overall appearance of robots if developers want their devices to be useful to humans.
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Minja Axelsson, a PhD student at Cambridge and a co-author of the study, concluded: "Our perceptions of how robots should look or behave might be holding back the uptake of robotics in areas where they can be useful." ®
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[5] https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/robots-can-help-improve-mental-wellbeing-at-work-as-long-as-they-look-right
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2023/03/08/humanoid_robot_marks_canada/
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[11] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Not a good idea for people who have a very high tolerance before they snap
These things are almost ideal in their function as a target for cthartic rage. They're generally annoying and they have no feelings. If you haul off and deck one for one too many "It looks like you're writing a letter..." comments, the worst you have to look forward to is a bill and your boss pretending to be annoyed at you (while secretly being grateful that someone else decked the thing). Things get more complicated when you do that to a person.
It's just a thing
I want a machine in the workplace to be just that, a machine; a thing. My toaster (thank you Red Dwarf for that perceptive warning!) just makes toast, my microwave just goes beep. Neither give me inspirational messages; they'd probably be told where to go if they did.
What's next? A TV that suggests what you should watch? A book that suggests what you should read? Oh, hang on...
Re: It's just a thing
Long ago, I had a boss with the personality of a toaster... he had almost no emotion when talking, I never was inspired by him. Perhaps it was his medication(s) both prescribed and self prescribed, I know he was having couch time. Hi Bob!
Big surprise...
What would people prefer when you're not feeling great - a dog/cat or some random person your only marginally acquainted with who keeps telling you to feel better?
Geez, big surprise that people prefer the pet like robot...
Re: Big surprise...
"some random person your only marginally acquainted with who keeps telling you to feel better...."
Normally what helps is some random person your only marginally acquainted with who listens to you while you metaphorically retch up all the bullshit you've had to swallow in the past day (/week /year). What REALLY helps is when they're serving drinks while listening!
Re: Big surprise...
Next up, robo bartenders...
Could make a lucrative sideline in selling records of their conversations back to employers' HR departments. Thanks for the idea.
Re: Big surprise...
My thoughts exactly. The one on the right looks like a cute pet, not some irritating perpetually happy human.
Re: Big surprise...
To me, the 'humanoid' seems more toy like. Getting advice from it just seems like it'd be much more patronising.
Asimov nailed it
In his robot series, he posited a future where robots were only accepted if they were obviously robots, and there was both a deep cultural stigma and strong legislation against robots that could pass for humans. And he got the psychology spot on.
Not surpised people didn't like that robot on the left
It looks like the robots from the [1]Doctor Who episode Smile .
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mu3c4MNESX0
Having a robot on my desk telling me that I have to be happy could be a good opportunity to either learn it to fly or experiment the fate of a robot placed in a working oven.
If it'll fit, a microwave oven works even better.
Having 10,000V + develop across each of its GPIOs is a spectacular way to die for a glorified Furby
Your plastic pal who's fun to be with...
When will people realise that Douglas Adams' "Sirius Cybernetics Corporation" were not a model to aspire to?
Next they'll be programming these things to sing the 'Share and Enjoy' song.
Our perceptions of how robots should look or behave might be holding back the uptake of robotics
well, once he's fired and replaced by one of these cuddlies, he might revisit the real cause.
Apologies from a railway computer
There's nothing more infuriating than a computer on a train or at a railway station apologising to you because your train is late.
child-like plastic 90cm-tall body with human-type arms and legs
coming very soon near YOUR local unemployment centre...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=flLoSxd2nNY
Feeling better at work
**** robots.
To improve my work mood a reduction in excessive workload and better triage of support issues by the customer facing team, instead of 90% of issues being tagged as super urgent must be fixed ASAP (especially when its customer error and ideally the customer needs additional training to avoid it happening again & again), would be infinitely more effective than a robot.
Re: Feeling better at work
"**** robots."
The day that becomes a real thing, all work will cease.
er.
Your plastic pal, who's fun to be with...
An impedance mismatch for Affective HR ...
where non-algorithmic qualities get pursued on a purely algorithmic basis.
As described in 2020 here:
(Talk)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0iKDuj7BJc
(Short paper)
https://publications.crs4.it/pubdocs/2020/BB20a/Brelstaff-cAESAR.pdf
Box
[1]Make it a clear perspex box with flashing lights.
[1] https://blakes7.fandom.com/wiki/Orac
So size matters after all...
So, when the users are given the choice of two equally un-desirable and annoying robots, they pick the one that will fit under an upturned bin.
I have to wonder if the exact location/conditions of these robots was monitored for the duration of this trial....
I wonder how well they swim in cement
I sincerely hope these are deployed to a construction yard where someone is filming. I've missed Robot Wars and this could become a fresh take on a tried idea.
"It's incredibly difficult to create a robot that's capable of natural conversation"
Judging by the likes of Musk and Trump it's even hard for some people (no, not 'humans', that assumes humanity), so it certainly is a challenge.
/s
Not a good idea for people who have a very high tolerance before they snap
I once saw a colleague lose his shit on a bad call that he grabbed his keyboard, smashed it so hard into the desk that 90% of the key tops flew in very direction, it split in half and he was left holding one half and the other almost hit someone. We were still finding key tops 5 years later when we moved out of the office! I once broke an office chair when we had a bad day 'cos loads of stuff failed from incompetance and sheer dumb luck. Sorry but when the stress damn breaks for some of us we have to find the nearest inanimate object and let it have the full brunt of our rage.
I'm most certainly not proud of that tipping point of my temper, the worst character trait I have and thankfully one that's only emerged 3-4 times in my entire life, it's childish and borne out of sheer frustration. So if some cute little box is going to keep smiling at me and telling me to "Don't worry, be happy!", then I'm afraid there's going to be two items to pay for, the broken plate glass window and the robot.