Researchers in New Zealand are working on a robot that will most likely not receive any praise from Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk and others concerned about robots taking over the world.
This machine, created by artificial intelligence firm Touchpoint Group, is designed to be the angriest robot in the world in order to help telecommunications and insurance companies understand why their customers are so frustrated, according to Tech Times.
The project, dubbed Radiant, will involve cooperation from one of Australia's top four banks, which is providing the researchers with real-life interactions with customers that have been recorded over the past couple of years. The bank will also share customer service data from telecos and insurance companies participating in the project.
Data researchers from New Zealand and Australia will spend the next six months uploading the data collection into the robot's database and program the machine to simulate interactions so participating companies can figure out where this anger comes from and what triggers customers' outbursts, Tech Times reported. Frank can der Velden, CEO of Touchpoint, said the program would test different "what if" scenarios to see which ones lead to customers' satisfaction or anger.
The firms plan on using this information to improve their policies, processes and products to provide better customer service.
CNET pointed out that Radiant could make it easier for companies to handle large amounts of data.
"Companies don't have the numbers of staff to go through this manually," van der Velden said. "It's very difficult. Take a bank for example, they receive a hell of a lot of data every day. But it gets to a point where that dataset grows so large that it becomes meaningless unless you can interpret it. That's where Radiant will fit in."
A robot capable of simulating anger may not seem like a good idea to Musk, Stephen Hawking and other leaders in technology who signed an open letter that was introduced in January to make sure humanity keeps control over technology so a Terminator-like future doesn't become a reality.
