As if we didn’t already have enough reasons to fear artificial intelligence, German engineers had to go and whip up something like this.
The bionic elephant trunk featured in the video above, which the engineering firm Festo provided proof-of-concept for three years ago, is now in full swing, so to speak. Meant to mimic the flexibility of the trunk of an elephant as opposed to any sort of human appendage, which people like Spider-Man will surely find comforting, the arms’ unsettling resemblance to supervillain Dr. Octopus’ robotic tentacles has not gone unnoticed.
However, according to Geekosystem, the mechanism is much more than just a scary looking prop. Made of pneumatic artificial muscles with 3D-printed segments attached to help it grip objects, the robot was also given artificial intelligence and muscle memory. In layman’s terms, it learns through a system of trial and error that has been dubbed “goal babbling,” adapting its own positioning and muscle behavior when picking up different objects.
While designed as a means to simply help humans in industrial environments grab things, one can’t help but feel slightly on edge due to the mechanisms A.I., which has to be trained just like a human being in order to do its job correctly. We can definitely foresee this going terribly wrong.
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