Sitting next to a rather sceptical man at the SXSW Interactive Extensions of Humanity event hosted at Japan House in downtown Austin, I knew he wasn't impressed by the robotics engineering, artificial intelligence, augmented humanity, and hyper medicine tech being exhibited by some of Japan's top engineers.

We sat and listened to experts explaining developments in technologies that will allow for superhuman strength, as well as the creation of robots so lifelike in physical and mental appearance that distinguishing between them and humans will be virtually impossible.

Such possibilities were clearly having a disconcerting effect on the man in the next seat who was perhaps originally drawn into the venue on account of its open bar rather than any desire to gain insight into the potential of AI. His was a dystopian position. “We’re so preoccupied with whether or not we ‘could’, we don’t stop to think if we ‘should’, you can quote me on that,” he said as he got up and walked dramatically towards the exit.

His profound expression of fear for the consequences of pushing AI and robotics technology too far is one that's shared by many, not to mention being the subplot for countless science fiction movies (the man's envoi was in fact a quote stolen from Jeff Goldbloom's character, Dr Ian Malcolm, in the movie Jurassic Park.)

Interactive androids

Japanese society, on the other hand, doesn’t appear to be too concerned about how fast robotics and AI technology is moving and which directions it takes. There, the industry is moving at a much faster pace and one of its leaders is Prof

Hiroshi Ishiguro

, director of the Intelligent Robotics Laboratory, in Osaka, Japan. While relatively unknown outside of his home country, Ishiguro would be considered somewhat of a hero where he’s from. Dressed in all black – leather boots, tight pants and a black leather jacket – Ishiguro’s stern brow and Bond villain-esque spectacles betray a rather more childlike demeanour when met in person. At least when he’s eagerly talking about his one true love: robots. Ishiguro came to SXSW Interactive to showcase Geminoid HI-4 and CommU, two interactive androids that can converse with and/or understand human beings.

Ishiguro and his fellow engineers from the department of systems innovation in the graduate school of engineering science at Osaka University have become known around the world for the development of their Geminoid technology, the most realistic humanoid robot ever developed. It has both a lifelike appearance and visible behaviour such as facial movements. Since first being unveiled in 2003, several more advanced prototypes have been made including Geminoid-HI-1, produced in the likeness of Hiroshi Ishiguro himself. His doppelgänger was made from silicone rubber, pneumatic actuators, electronics, even hair from his own scalp.

This apparent vanity project is in fact a perfect illustration of the unique approach Ishiguro takes to his discipline. For him, robotics is as much about human psychology and behaviour as it is coming up with clever maths and novel engineering applications. "One must try to combine a psychological approach with the more scientific side of building androids," he told The Irish Times. "Computer science takes a bottom-up approach to solving robotics problems. But that isn't enough. At some point you need to start thinking about how cognitive science and psychology can help augment any artificial lifelike android into a convincing replica."

Human element

There’s trial and error in his work, he admits. But keeping the focus on that mix of engineering and the human element, he believes, has been crucial to the success of the Intelligent Robotics Laboratory. “We are always looking for new ways to try and merge the two,” he says.

A recent addition to Ishiguro’s growing army of life-like androids came in the form of a popular, Japanese transgender talk show host known as Matsuko Deluxe. In 2015, Matsukoroid and her human double appeared together for the first time on Japanese television. The android’s silicon “flesh”, hair and sophisticated voice- and face-recognition software – which allowed it to mimic the movements, expressions and gestures of Matsuko Deluxe – was eerily lifelike. This somewhat creepy realism Ishiguro has been able to achieve with his androids puts some people off. But in reality it is a distraction from the true innovation at the centre of his work: the blend of engineering and psychology.

Another example of this came in the form of Ishiguro’s second toy on display at SXSW Interactive 2016, CommU, a far less sophisticated robot with a simpler design. Looking like the head and shoulders of a Japanese baby, CommUs are supposed to come at least in pairs of two but a bigger group is even better. The robots communicate with each other on various subjects and when a human joins the conversation, the CommUs will engage with her. “But they do not understand anything the human is saying,” stresses Ishiguro. “These robots have been designed simply to demonstrate the dynamics of conversation in a group setting. If we had just one robot and one person, there wouldn’t be any conversation. The robot would need to have a voice-recognition function for that. But if you have two robots, sharing a story with each other and then a human joins the group, the robots will recognise the human is talking and perhaps say something like, ‘what do you think?’ When you answer, the robots will say ‘I see’, and then move on. So a convincing communication exchange in a group setting is happening even though the robots cannot understand the human.

“This is as much about psychology as technology,” he adds. “It demonstrates the importance of interaction between people in a group setting, and the basic elements required for successful conversation to be had between man and machine. It may seem trivial, but knowing more about these kinds of psychological dynamics in human communication all contribute to the successful advancement of robotics and AI research.”