Poll of the Day > Do you think there would be a market for intelligent, sentient, AIs and robots?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I don't mean a small niche market, I mean a big one.

Metal Gear Rising had an interesting take on the concept, where they designed computers that were more like organic brains than traditional computers to achieve "human like learning ability", so much so that these "brain" computers couldn't be programmed, they would instead put them through a VR simulation to essentially "raise" them to serve their purpose, but have the process fast forwarded so it could be mass produced (the mass manufactured ones roughly had the intelligence of a child but had the efficiency of machines).

Funnily enough, there was a company that succeeded in created a "brain" computer that housed a fully intelligent, sentient AI, but the project was shut down after their first prototype because it was decided that sentient AIs have no market appeal over non sentient AIs since they can't be forced to blindly do something passionately and risk disobeying.

Than you have Megaman Battle Network, where everyone basically has an intelligent, sentient AI as their personal assistant (they have the ability to disagree with and refuse to do things their owners ask of them, but it's not really a problem that deters their use).
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I like the idea, but it needs to have a security shut-off in case it goes mental. I'm assuming killing a robot would be harder than a human being.

Muh robot sex GF
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Sentient doesn't mean they can't be raised perfect for their job. Without a need to eat and sleep and the ability to be turned off any time, they become the best gaming opponents you could hope for.
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Kyuubi4269 posted...

Sentient doesn't mean they can't be raised perfect for their job. Without a need to eat and sleep and the ability to be turned off any time, they become the best gaming opponents you could hope for.

Didn't say they couldn't be, in stories where sentient AIs are made and sold they are often pre programmed to be good at and desire to serve the purpose they were made for, and most AIs are happy to live out their lives serving that purpose, but as sentient beings they have the ability to change their minds and choose to not follow what they were programmed to do.
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DarkKirby2500 posted...

as sentient beings they have the ability to change their minds and choose to not follow what they were programmed to do.

That's why you don't expose them to unnecessary stimuli or give them reason to enjoy other things.
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there is a market for anything. and if these robots/AI could handle mundane daily tasks yes people would love them.
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Hypothetically, yes of course.

Hypothetically, Communism works.

DarkKirby2500 posted...

Funnily enough, there was a company that succeeded in created a "brain" computer that housed a fully intelligent, sentient AI, but the project was shut down after their first prototype because it was decided that sentient AIs have no market appeal over non sentient AIs since they can't be forced to blindly do something passionately and risk disobeying.

That statement taken at face value...

In practice, AI not approaching sentience but that can still perform pretty sophisticated tasks (cooking, stock trading, conversation, driving, playing video games) is developing by leaps and bounds every year, while machine based "thinking" (as we typically understand the term in humans) struggles with really simple things (among them being "off switches"). Sooner or later we'll figure out how to have these non-sentient routines existing under a single hardware platform (a single device that can make dinner, clean, drive, fuck, and hold up its end of a conversation), and whoever does that will make a killing selling robot waifus. That shit's around the corner, all while sentient AI is still in the lab.

I can't say for certain that a mix of market demands and practical considerations will always continue to drive non-sentient AI to outpace sentient AI, but that's the direction we're headed. The fact is with all the added expense, complications, and downsides, we don't really want sentient AI that much.
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Spinoff topic?

Anyway, I think that is where we get into some moral grey ground. On one hand, they would be manufactured and no one would produce them if they could not make a profit on them (at least not on a large scale). They also consume resources and would need to produce something to offset the cost for most people. On the other hand, they are intelligent and capable of self-awareness, which are sort of the criteria we assign to human rights. I imagine there would be a significant backlash from people who viewed them as, for all intents and purposes, alive. Controversy like that, combined with the significant cost would probably turn off most major companies, and I doubt smaller companies would be able to produce significant amounts of humanoid robots. It's a bit of a catch 22 on several accounts.