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Microduck

pollen-robotics.com

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Re: Microduck

#31

Post by kodoman »

dgellow wrote: post #28
kodoman wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly I feel that way for the whole AI friend industry that is developing, from AI boyfriends and girlfriends to just kind of AI 'friends'. But this sort of thing is a sort of robot pet and I think the dynamics are different. Some one replacing a robot cat with a cat is not an evil thing in the way that trying to substitute human relationships are.

I agree, just don’t lie about it. You can present it as a cute little robot pet without problems. No need to say “it expresses and feels emotions like a real cat”. The AI industry has normalized lying about your products to a whole new level, that shouldn’t be acceptable

Looking through the advertising.

> Through communication, Moflin’s emotional state changes. Your robot companion can show joy, sadness, and happiness, reacting just like a living creature would. Moflin does not possess actual emotions like humans do. Their emotional expressions are simulated by AI. And lots of bits of the advert seems to be explain how it's not real in the QA and that everything is a simulation.

I have not used the product, but nothing strikes me as dishonest about the advertising.

Re: Microduck

#32

Post by unglaublich »

_joel wrote: post #22

It's either this or https://mondorobotics.com/ and I'm torn. Obviously it's for my daughter and I will just be safety checking, definitely, 100%.

Will Beni/monodorobotics have open source software, or at least a hackable stack?

Re: Microduck

#33

Post by amelius »

tenuousemphasis wrote: post #29
amelius wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And can it walk back to a charge station and hook itself up?

You can train it to do pretty much anything.

You can train deep learning to do anything. But the question is ... will it do it? And the next question: how reliably?

Re: Microduck

#34

Post by serf »

_joel wrote: post #22

It's either this or https://mondorobotics.com/ and I'm torn. Obviously it's for my daughter and I will just be safety checking, definitely, 100%.

I believe the Microduck camera footage (the ad - reel) about 1000x more than the Mondo one.

Re: Microduck

#35

Post by teiferer »

amelius wrote: post #13
jCalamari wrote: post #5

AI is coming for pet market too.

AI is taking all the fun jobs. Now also for pets.

Don't believe that all pet animals are having a great life.

Many people with a dog don't get that as a pack animal it's cruel to leave it alone indoors all day, they overfeed them and keep them alive well beyond the stage where some hip/back/joint pain issues would keep it in constant pain. Cats are the opposite, people get them "a companion" so it doesn't feel "alone", yet in reality, in addition to also being way overfed, there is now constant warfare in the house cause cats (that are not directly blood related) actually hate each other, another word for being territorial. "Oh look how cute they are playing with each other, chasing through the house!" Yeah no, it's Hunger Games day in day out. Other species don't fare better, from turtles living in their own s*it to birds who never can fly. We are very cruel to our pets, often too ignorant to notice, with exceptions being much too rare.

I welcome those pets being replaced by robots.

Re: Microduck

#37

Post by quadrature »

serf wrote: post #34
_joel wrote: post #22

It's either this or https://mondorobotics.com/ and I'm torn. Obviously it's for my daughter and I will just be safety checking, definitely, 100%.

I believe the Microduck camera footage (the ad - reel) about 1000x more than the Mondo one.

For what it’s worth the mondo team has been posting development log videos on Reddit since before they incorporated. They raised money so they now have ads with more production value, but they came from small beginnings and I do trust their product.

Re: Microduck

#38

Post by ForHackernews »

kodoman wrote: post #31
dgellow wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree, just don’t lie about it. You can present it as a cute little robot pet without problems. No need to say “it expresses and feels emotions like a real cat”. The AI industry has normalized lying about your products to a whole new level, that shouldn’t be acceptable

Looking through the advertising. > Through communication, Moflin’s emotional state changes. Your robot companion can show joy, sadness, and happiness, reacting just like a living creature would. Moflin does not possess actual emotions like humans do. Their emotional expressions are simulated by AI. And lots of bits of the advert seems to be explain how it's not real in the QA and that everything is a simulation. I ha…

> Your robot companion can show joy, sadness, and happiness, reacting just like a living creature would.

Seems like a lie to me. Compare:

> Our synthetic foodstuffs can taste sweet, salty, tart or tangy, delicious flavors just like natural ingredients.

(But then it's all aspartame, etc.)

Re: Microduck

#39

Post by Philip-J-Fry »

_joel wrote: post #22

It's either this or https://mondorobotics.com/ and I'm torn. Obviously it's for my daughter and I will just be safety checking, definitely, 100%.

That's a completely different class of robot. The Beni robot is just a toy, it's just connect the app and drive it around, record videos and do some fancy tricks like flips. It is not meant to be a platform you program yourself.

The Microduck is meant to be a hacker toy. Train it yourself, write software, hack it, etc.

It depends what you're trying to get for your daughter. Is it something to get her into robotics? Then probably the Microduck is the way. If it's literally just a toy, then the Beni robot is better because that's literally all it is.

Re: Microduck

#40

Post by Isamu »

dgellow wrote: post #17
kodoman wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

why not?

Because it’s a lie. And is pushing for even worse sycophantic products > Emotional AI Support, Powered by Intelligence Targeting emotionally vulnerable people with AI promises is pretty disgusting

How about “this duck fakes positive emotions like we all do from time to time”
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