Dogs will obey commands from social robots

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/05/13/dogs-will-obey-commands-from-s.html

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SIT.
YOU HAVE FIVE SECONDS TO COMPLY.
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What if the commands are given by robot dogs?

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The experiment does not seem to be well controlled. There are at least a couple of dogs which, when told to “Sit!” by the robot, look at one of the humans as if to say, “really?”
Since the humans are blurred (for us, not the dogs), it’s impossible to tell whether they’re cueing the dogs at all.

Size of the 'bot is likely to make a difference. My dogs seldom paid attention to my kids until they reached a certain size.

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My parents found another home for our first dog, because when my younger brother and I were toddlers he would walk over us, knock us down, and step on us (if given the chance).

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Yeah we had to re-home a dog like that. When I was three she used to knock me down and steal my glasses.

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Overall it doesnt seem as if they are much better attuned to obeying their betters than humans are.

Who knew it would be our dogs saying “I for one welcome our new robot overlords”

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Having a human sitting next to the source of the command must skew the experiment surely?

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Do you want Black Mirror?
Because that’s how you get Black Mirror.

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“Rrr gruff hrr rrrrrr RUF ruf-hrrrr UF!”

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We’re more or less already there anyway.

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Will squirrels save us?

tenor

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Possibly.

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Oh well, we had a good run. An interesting run, at least, perhaps not good.

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Can’t be trusted.

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They’d have to fight it out with the penguins first.
Unless they team up.
In that case we’re doomed.

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While the talk of experiment validity and the steps leading us into a dystopian future are all well and good, I just wanted to say that I loved the expression on the golden retriever whose face basically said, “Really?! Okay…,” before sitting down. I love their emotive faces so much!

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