Whether through fear or fascination, Hollywood has long used robots to fuel its narratives. One of the most famous stories to use automation has been the Star Wars saga — a franchise that just debuted its first official spinoff film: Rogue One.
While the film may have taken place a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away (warning: content may contain spoilers), its storyline is influenced by modern-day technology and accompanying concerns.
Let’s break down four things Rogue One taught us about the future of automation.
Robots won’t look exactly like humans.
In Rogue One, we’re introduced to a new droid: K-2SO. K-2SO, similar to other humanoid-style droids such as the friendly C-3PO or evil EV-9D9, looks similar to a biological human. This makes sense in terms of design, since its responsibilities are to use tools created for humans (such as pilot vehicles and other machinery). With two arms, two legs and a massive build, this robot was clearly created for security purposes. Astromech droids (like R2-D2), on the other hand, are built short and stout in order to easily transport and house a multitude of tools.
The Star Wars robots are able to work alongside and develop relationships with humans. Regardless of the droid or its function, though, one design element is consistent: no robot looks too human.
As robots become more common in our daily homes and workplaces, human aesthetics will be an important factor for widespread acceptance. A major roadblock for this trend, though, is what’s commonly referred to as the uncanny valley, or the uneasiness someone feels when they encounter an entity that is almost, but not quite, human.
The uncanny boundary relies on three factors: when something moves from one category to another (in this case, between nonhuman and human), whether we’re able to believe that near-human entity possess a mind as we do, or mismatches between aspects of the robot’s appearance and/or behavior (ex. if facial expressions don’t match a mood).
As robotic engineers begin to understand this, many are creating machines that are semi-humanoid — retaining both simple human traits and traditional machine forms. One group highlighting this trend is Rethink Robotics. These engineers have created Sawyer and Baxter, two machines that avoid the uncanny effect by possessing a machine-like build but have cartoon eyes that promote collaboration with human workers.
Robots and humans will work together.
Robots play a vital role in all of the Star Wars films. These characters’ combination of distinct personality traits and emotional intelligence allow them to guide, complement and assist their human counterparts — ultimately protecting them.
This type of human-machine experience relates directly to the goals of artificial intelligence: replicating how humans process, handle and perform tasks in order to handle complex problems and create solutions when unexpected complications arise. Much like K-2SO, futuristic robots will have the highest potential when they can understand the subtle actions of humans. This ideal level of empathy allows man and machine to form relationships, ultimately becoming an extension of ourselves.
There has always been some fear the robots will take over humans’ jobs, but as artificial intelligence comes of age, experts are insisting this isn’t true.
Oxford University’s Carl Benedikt Frey estimates that much as 47 percent of American employment is at high risk of being automated over the next 10 to 20 years. A study done by researchers at the Centre for European Economic Research in Mannheim, though, argues that these estimates are dramatically overstated because they assume whole occupations would be displaced, rather than specific tasks within them. By examining tasks rather than complete occupations, Mannheim’s research found that only 9 percent of American jobs were susceptible to automation.
Additionally, this mindset overlooks the assumption that while some jobs may become obsolete for humans, automation of tedious tasks will allow new careers to emerge.
Military robots will have a code of ethics.
K-2SO is an autonomous military robot that was built to fight for the Imperial Empire. After being captured and reprogrammed by the rebels, it becomes a core member of Rogue One — the team tasked with stealing the plans for the first Death Star. Thanks to its moments of independence and verbal firepower, K-2SO is a symbol of the next wave in artificial intelligence.
This charmingly blunt robot may have caught the interest of many fans, but it also brought up an uncomfortable topic: military robots can change sides.
While the idea of military soldiers switching sides is nothing new, modern mechanical weapons and the confidential information they hold change the nature of deflecting. One way to avert these hacks is by creating completely autonomous systems — robots that would not require external communication systems.
“Some robotics engineers and researchers are working on exactly this and have started to develop the algorithms that will enable autonomous military robots to be ethical,” Jonathan Roberts, a professor of robotics at Queensland University of Technology, claims. “They propose that robots may be able to be protect civilians better than human soldiers.”
Machines will communicate through the Internet of Things.
With a galaxy full of interconnected droids, soldiers, weapons, giant ships and, of course, the Force — Star Wars was always far ahead of its time in predicting the workings of the Internet of Things.
The IoT is used to described all of the interconnected gadgets we have today — ranging from computers, smartphones, smart printers, cars and any other device that can connect to the internet. Looking towards the near future, Cisco predicts that 50 billion devices will be connected to the IoT by 2020.
The Death Star, for example, is compared to the size of the moon. Darth Vader may not have been using wifi to control it all, but with a ship this large, there’s clearly some kind of automated system in place. This isn’t too different from the emerging conversion of houses to smart homes that allow owners to control everything from lights to thermostats and doors and everything inbetween. By 2019, almost two-thirds of people plan to own an internet-connected device for their home.
Similar to how K-2SO and C3PO can all seamlessly translate and communicate with other droids, machines and humans, devices of the future will be able to talk to one another. As it turns out, IBM is already working with other companies to add Watson’s capabilities to their technology. For example, washing machines could tell a dryer what program to use for recently washed clothes, computer vision techniques could help security cameras identify suspicious activity and text-to-speech capabilities could let wireless headphones translate or read instruction manuals.
Additionally, while we may not have access to the Force, we’re not too far off from using our minds to control these devices. IBM also demonstrated how its IoT platform can work with Nokia’s products to help in elder care. The solution permits people to use gestures to monitor temperature, lighting and other controls without using an app, getting up or asking for help.
What do you think Rogue One teaches us about automation’s future?
Did you find any other connections between Rogue One and emerging automation trends? Let’s chat — tweet us @AppleRubber.