The Rise of Robots - Erica The Robot To Replace TV News Anchor

Robots are finally taking our jobs.  It's not the first time this year that robots are in the news. You remember  Sophia the robot, right? She's a creepy robot that says stuff like:  "I want to destroy humans." Earlier this year, Chrissy Teigen  responded to a tweet from Sophia the robot. 

Sophia tweeted: "Can you guess which  city i'm headed to next? Here's a little clue." And then Chrissy Teigen replied  with: "Hopefully one with better makeup artists BOOM I roasted a robot next  level sh*t." And then Sophia replied with: "Hey, Chrissy Teigen. It looks like we're both  at CES! Want to meet up and say hi? I need some makeup tips *winky face*" If you're  unsettled by this, you're in luck because there's more robots just like Sophia.

Maybe all these robots are friends? That'd be cool. Or maybe not? Maybe  they're enemies. But a robot really similar to Sophia (named Erica) who has  one of the most advanced artificial speech systems in the world, is about to  take over someone's job in Japan. What's this job that this robot is stealing  from a hard-working human? A news anchor job. That's right. A real live human being  telling us the news is going to be replaced with a fake human being telling  us the news. 

I can't imagine how I would feel if somebody told me that I was  being replaced by a robot. Do you think they even told the newscaster, 'Hey. You're  being fired, and you're being replaced by a robot actually,'  by another person, or did they fire the news anchor, they didn't tell them that  they're going to be replaced by an android, and now they're reading this  article right now and finding out this awful news? Bummer. I'm so sorry that I  had to break the news to you. The creator of Erica, Dr. Ishiguro, has been trying to  get her on TV since 2014. Well, didn't he luck out! 

She's just not featured on TV,  it's not some TV appearance, she got a full-time working woman's job! Is she  getting paid? Where does the money go? Do robots have bank accounts? I'd love to  know. Please answer those questions down below,  Ishiguro. Speaking of money, it comes to no surprise that Erica costed a lot  of money to make. She comes from one of the highest funded science programs in  Japan. Now it's time for some creepy Erica facts. 

Creepy fact 

No.1: Erica cannot move her arms, but she can
figure out where sound is coming from and who's asking her a question in a room. Creepy Fact 

No. 2: Erica has 14  infrared sensors in her and also face recognition technology. Creepy Fact

No. 3: Erica's creator refers to himself as her  father. Alright. I'm done with creepy facts. Ishiguro, the creator of Erica, has  also created other robots. She is not the only one! In 2014, he had ultra realistic  robot news anchors at a Tokyo Museum. Erica is supposed to be 23 years old.

She's also supposed to develop compassion, which is great. Maybe she  won't kill us, right? She has a little bit of a heart in there, but then again it  said that she's supposed to have an independent consciousness, which sounds  like she is gonna kill us? Actually, I can't decide, but maybe I'm wrong about  Erica and maybe I'm wrong about all robots in general. 

Maybe they're just  here to take all of our jobs so us humans can sit by the pool, drinking  margaritas, relaxing... and then somehow we get money... then, then  they pay us! Erica's creator said making androids is about exploring what it  means to be human. Examining the question of what is emotion, what is awareness.  I don't have the answer to any of those questions. If I made a robot, though, I  wouldn't allow it to have dry lips. I always get dry lips. Bad design. If I am a robot,  bad design. 

Why am I getting dry lips? There isn't a whole lot of details about  what Erica's job will be on the news, but it's supposed to entail her reading news  written by humans, which I'm doing right now. You might be surprised, but Erica  isn't the first AI news anchor to be on TV. In 2015, software developed by  Microsoft was actually a meteorologist. That may not make sense, but it wasn't  like a physical robot, but it was just like this voice that came with software?

So just like a floating voice in the air took somebody's meteorologist job? The  news seems like a hard business. Who knows? Maybe I'll be replaced by a cool  bot next week. They probably wouldn't mess up as much as I do.  This took me many takes to get through this article. What are your thoughts on  robots taking over our jobs? Let me know in the COMMENTS down below.