Embodied AI

The increasing appreciation of the body’s role in cognition—that the brain-mind is embedded in a physical, sensory-motor system interacting with the real world—is shedding the dualistic straitjacket that has characterized “classical” artificial intelligence research. So, as proposed by Grady Booch, let’s imagine unleashing a technology platform using natural language processing and machine learning, such as IBM’s Watson, in the physical world. Give it eyes, ears, and touch, then let it act in that world with hands and feet and a face, not just as an action of force but also as an action of influence. This is embodied cognition: by placing the cognitive power of such a platform in a robot, in an avatar, an object in your hand, or even in the walls of an operating room, conference room, or spacecraft, we take a Watson’s ability to understand and reason and draw it closer to the natural ways in which humans live and work. In so doing, we augment individual human senses and abilities, giving that technology platform the ability see a patient’s complete medical condition, feel the flow of a supply chain, or drive a factory like a maestro before an orchestra.