Helen Greiner

IRobot co-founder, Droid Works CEO and 2007 MHT All-Star Helen Greiner contributes an article to Forbes Magazine’s package on robotics and artificial intelligence, and makes a compelling argument against humanoid robots:

Customers don’t want a Roomba vacuuming robot that argues when you tell it to vacuum the floor. That’s what kids are for. When the company I co-founded, iRobot, first delivered Roomba to customers, they didn’t write to us and say, “I want it to be more humanlike.” They said, “Make it cover the floor better and make it recharge on its own” (we did) …

Likewise, the military doesn’t need robots that question commands or find their assignment boring. Combat robots are built for a mission; they are tools for the soldier. 

In the same package, Yale computer science professor David Gelernter argues for a resurgence in AI research’s less practical side:

This facet of AI research has more or less shut down because it ignored an all-important detail: Intelligence isn’t just about problem-solving, but about a whole cognitive spectrum that includes dreaming and other forms of unconscious activity.