Stanford Close To A.I. Robots For Home

Apr. 7 - KGO (KGO) -- Stanford is getting close to creating a robot that can help you around the house. Japan is also so close that government officials released a set of ethical guidelines to protect people from robots - a move that demonstrates just how soon this technology is coming.

"Stair" is Stanford's artificial intelligence robot project -- a complex device, complete with switches, hard drives and wires that can be given a simple task, such as, empty the dishwasher. Then through artificial intelligence, analysis it's surroundings and then figures out the best way to complete it, on its own.

Andrew Ng, Stanford Univ. Computer Science Prof. "In Stanford's artificial intelligence robot project, our goal is within a decade to develop the technology to make it useful to put a robot in every home, a robot in every office."

Because science fiction is not to far off, especially in Japan, it's ministry of economy, trade and industry has drafted a set of ethical standards for robots. A 60 page document designed to prevent risks to humans in a world where robots may soon be used to cook, clean and complete other tasks. Technology experts say the U.S. is behind in developing these rules, which they insist are imperative.

Andrew Ng: "The issue of safety is on the minds of just about every single robotics person I know, I think it's a good sign that the governments are getting involved and thinking about how to design robots that are safe."

Michael Kanellos, Cnet News.Com: "There's going to be a lot of human machine interactions and you really do need standards there or people are going to get hurt."

Michael Kanellos with CNET News says Japan is only about 3 or 4 years away from using robots in the home. Kanellos says Japan's government is building on the general principal of science fiction writer Isaac Asimov and his laws.

Michael Kanellos: "A robot can not hurt a person, a robot must follow the orders of a human. This will be things like, a robot in the house, once it hits an object won't be able to keep plowing through. You have to put in systems that it will stop."

Japan's document even calls for robots to be equipped with a system to log any injuries they cause to humans.

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