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If you think human-robot relations are a blank slate, Kate Darling is here to set you straight. Also: AI-human hybrids to help harried moms, California acts against robotizing workers, and more
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A “centaur” to help mothers fend off burnout
Yohana is a new service created by robotics and AI pioneer Yoky Matsuoka that’s what Gary Kasparov calls a “centaur”: A human-AI hybrid to do a job better than either could do on alone. In this case, the job is assisting mothers. As Steven Levy reports in his newsletter, the AI tracks household needs and predicts problems by crunching information from various in-home sensors. The human employee uses that info to assist the client with anything from a kid’s science homework to renovating the attic.
Whether or not this particular startup succeeds, it’s a great example of how robots for daily life will arrive. Not (as the public fears) replacing humans but rather trying to work in a complimentary way with them. The hope for Yohana is that the sensors and AI make the human assistant’s job less of a grind and more effective too (Matsuoka cites a Google Nest motion sensor that detected an increase in the number of times an elderly man got up…