Will Japanese robot Erica have independent consciousness?

According to a report on January 31, Beijing time, a lifelike robot named "Erika" will become a news anchor for a Japanese TV station in April this year. Erica has one of the most advanced artificial language systems in the world.

According to its developer, Professor Hiroshi Ishiguro, Erica is enthusiastic, caring, and may soon develop an "independent consciousness." She was praised for being so lifelike that she seemed to "have a soul."

Erica’s “builder” Dr. Dylan Glas said the robot has learned to tell jokes, “although these jokes are not laugh-out-loud jokes. What we really want to do is develop a robot that can think, act, and do everything on its own.”?

This is not the first time Ishiguro has developed a robot news anchor. In 2014, Ishiguro released news anchors named Kodomoroid and Otonaroid at a museum in Tokyo.

In 2015, Microsoft developed Xiaobing, the first robot TV anchor. Xiaobing landed on Dragon TV and was responsible for hosting the weather broadcast section. Using deep learning, intelligent cloud and big data technology, XiaoIce can analyze weather data and live broadcast weather conditions. This project was completed in cooperation with Haidongfang Media Group. ?

The Erica Project is the product of a collaboration between Kyoto and Osaka Universities. Her development was funded by one of the best-funded scientific projects, JST Erato.

Although she cannot move her arms, Erica can tell where the sounds are coming from and who is asking her questions. Her "age" is given as 23 years old and she has one of the most advanced artificial speech synthesis systems ever developed in the world. Using 14 infrared sensors and facial recognition technology, Erica can track people in a room.

Erica’s “builder” Dr. Dylan Glas said the robot has learned to tell jokes, “although these jokes are not laugh-out-loud jokes. What we really want to do is develop robots that can think, act, and do everything on their own."