Google Alphabet has reportedly found a new way that can help robots to understand commands that have been given. The trick is to teach the robot how to understand language in a simple way.
To understand language simply, Artificial Intelligence (AI) based chatbots have an important role in teaching language to robots. The reason is, this AI chatbot can allow users to command robots in simple English and help them navigate commands that exist in the real world.
Reporting from CNET (18/8), the tech giant has reportedly transplanted its latest artificial intelligence technology in handling languages, namely PaLM, to robots from Everyday Robots, an experimental division of parent company Alphabet. The result of combining this technology is called PaLM-SayCan.
Through this technology, Google’s AI language model will provide sufficient knowledge about the real world. This can then help the robot to interpret obscure human commands and string together a sequence of actions to respond to those commands.
This means that Google is able to combine the eyes and arms of a physical robot with the knowledge and conversational skills of a virtual chatbot. So the robot is able to perform single, structured tasks such as pouring coffee and cleaning floors.
For example, when a Google AI researcher told the PaLM-SayCan robot to help clean up a drink spill, the robot immediately picked up a sponge that was on the table and gave it to the researcher. In addition, this Google robot can also recognize drink cans, open drawers, and find snacks.
Robots will interpret naturally spoken commands, then weigh possible actions according to their abilities. This robot can also carry out commands according to the sequence to complete the command.
Google revealed that these structured actions are derived from AI chatbots that are embedded into robots to provide understanding of the world through Wikipedia, social media and other web pages. Furthermore, the AI chatbot technology embedded by Google is similar to other existing AI-based chatbot models.
“As we improve the language model, the robot’s performance must also improve,” said Kate Hausman, one of the senior researchers at Google who helped work on the project.
Unfortunately, the robot made by Google is called not ready to be sold commercially. The reason is, at this time the robot only does a few simple actions. In addition, Google has also not embedded the familiar ‘OK, Google’ calling feature to the PaLM-SayCan robot.
