Are You Being Served?

There has been a lot of talk about service robots over the past decade, and indeed some service robots are starting to make their way into the real world; delivering food in hospitals, turning book pages for people with physical diabilities, and the like. Unfortunately, while functional, these robots perform their jobs with all the panache of machines. When people want service robots they really want “servant robots” but without the social guilt that now often accompanies the hiring of actual human servants. To do servants correctly, it is necessary to have a hierarchy in the ‘help’. Only the Dark Knight has been able to maintain style and social standing with a single servant The AAAI-97 Conference Reception is the AI community’s social event of the season. Here, as with almost all AI activities, style and social standing are everything. AI researchers work hard, and when they party, they want to be pampered. Procuring one’s own food is gauche; the AI community wants to be served. Towards this end, KIPR is creating a pair of servant robots (Capt. Peacock and Mr. Humphries) to serve and cater to their charges every gastromical need, while maintaining that old-world flavor that lets you know that while your servants may be smarter, stronger and more expensive than you, they are definitely your social inferiors.