There's just so much it can't do

June 27, 2016 10:34 PM

Needybot roams the corridors of Wieden+Kennedy, forever seeking help, forever getting stuck, forever searching for a friend.
posted by gottabefunky (48 comments total)

Send it to Philly, we know how to take care of his kind.
posted by Anonymous at 10:41 PM on June 27, 2016

A Furry, Confused, Emotionally Demanding Robot Is Wandering the Halls of Wieden & Kennedy

Replace 'Wieden & Kennedy' with University, and that'd be me during Final Exam Week.

Good article; love the reactions of some of the kids. This could be great for work with kids on the autism spectrum, and no doubt other areas.
posted by Hardcore Poser at 10:46 PM on June 27, 2016 [4 favorites]

Forever searching the halls hoping to meet Carrie Brownstein.
posted by humboldt32 at 10:52 PM on June 27, 2016 [8 favorites]

The needy bot lays on it's back, it's belly baking in the hot sun, trying to turn itself over, but it can't. Not without your help. But you're not helping. Why is that, Leon?
posted by LeRoienJaune at 11:04 PM on June 27, 2016 [23 favorites]

I dunno, I have been working with robots for almost 30 years and this thing despite it's high concept is little better than a mobile Furby. But I suppose it is all about how you frame the project.
posted by boilermonster at 11:05 PM on June 27, 2016 [4 favorites]

So. An ad agency - a group of people whose job, at base, is to wheedle people into experiencing and identifying needs that can only be met by consuming the products of the agency's clients - has developed a mobile personification of need as its mascot. Huh.
posted by gingerest at 11:12 PM on June 27, 2016 [24 favorites]

While it certainly has a financial application, I feel like it's a personification of the good parts of portlandia- a reminder that other people may need your help.
posted by LuckyMonkey21 at 11:30 PM on June 27, 2016

Isn't that the Urban Airship building? BRB, going down the street to befriend Needybot.
posted by bendy at 11:39 PM on June 27, 2016 [3 favorites]

Furry, Confused, Emotionally Demanding

You say millennials came up with this? From..., Portland...?
posted by Ogre Lawless at 12:32 AM on June 28, 2016 [8 favorites]

Shut Up and Play the Hits!
posted by alex_skazat at 1:05 AM on June 28, 2016 [1 favorite]

I WANT ONE
posted by Jacqueline at 1:21 AM on June 28, 2016 [2 favorites]

Yeah I want one, our kitty would love it and they could spend hours together being needy at each other
posted by vrakatar at 1:42 AM on June 28, 2016 [4 favorites]

But there are, of course, deeper questions. Will Needy always need us? Will we, one day, need Needy? When you see a future Needy struggle, will you lend your human hand?

And, if you refuse to give Needy a hand, will Needy just take that hand, perhaps with a hidden saw!?! This isn't my first robo-rodeo, you know. I know how these things go....
posted by GenjiandProust at 4:16 AM on June 28, 2016 [4 favorites]

"HI, I'm Needybot, I suffer from short term membry loss. Can you help me?"
posted by leotrotsky at 4:16 AM on June 28, 2016 [4 favorites]

Hmm so needybot will ask you for help to go find someone else, then later will ask someone else if you are a liar... sounds more like manufacturesofficedramabot to me...
posted by Nanukthedog at 4:23 AM on June 28, 2016 [4 favorites]

I started with the videos, and I couldn't tell if this was real or not. It kind of looked like a spoof. But a spoof about robots and AI? Or a heart-warming fable about how people need other people?
After a bit of Googling (didn't know what Wieden+Kennedy was... being from New England, had to figure out which Portland...), it sounds real.
Now... is it still heart-warming? Or what gingerest said?
posted by MtDewd at 4:26 AM on June 28, 2016

Recipe: Add one roomba to roomful of fur babies and presto! You have needybot = **bee boo** "clean romba's brushes"
posted by mightshould at 4:27 AM on June 28, 2016 [2 favorites]

Needybot kind of rubs me the wrong way. #hottake: you know what Wieden + Kennedy would do with a human who was so needy? Fire them.
posted by dis_integration at 5:22 AM on June 28, 2016 [2 favorites]

Needybot may have been made to be needy, but I think--I think--that all Needybot really needs is one wild road trip to Vegas to develop a little self-confidence and break out of his dependency shell. Who's with me?
posted by Halloween Jack at 5:28 AM on June 28, 2016 [5 favorites]

How often does an office-dog tear Needy to shreds?
posted by amanda at 5:31 AM on June 28, 2016 [2 favorites]

The first time it got stuck in the cables under my desk would be the last time....
posted by photoslob at 5:43 AM on June 28, 2016

I'd have to fight the urge to kidnap Needybot and take him home so he could be my friend forever.
posted by Faint of Butt at 5:53 AM on June 28, 2016 [2 favorites]

Dang, W-K have nice offices.
posted by schmod at 6:15 AM on June 28, 2016

Needybot may have been made to be needy, but I think--I think--that all Needybot really needs is one wild road trip to Vegas to develop a little self-confidence and break out of his dependency shell. Who's with me?

Phase Two: Build Manic Pixie Dream Bot...
posted by Naberius at 6:50 AM on June 28, 2016 [8 favorites]

Needybot may have been made to be needy, but I think--I think--that all Needybot really needs is one wild road trip to Vegas to develop a little self-confidence and break out of his dependency shell. Who's with me?

Danke shoen, darling danke schoen.
posted by CBrachyrhynchos at 7:07 AM on June 28, 2016

But there are, of course, deeper questions. Will Needy always need us? Will we, one day, need Needy? When you see a future Needy struggle, will you lend your human hand?

Needy is the Basilisk in furry form. Refuse it help at your peril.
posted by sparklemotion at 7:31 AM on June 28, 2016 [1 favorite]

I can picture myself working in this office. One day is particularly bad. Maybe I'm behind on my workflow. Late for a meeting, no breakfast, no coffee. Problems at home possibly.

Needybot rolls up to me, needy as usual.

I look down at the Cousin Itt with a giant eye. And I kick it, hard. Winning fieldgoal hard. All the way down the hall.
posted by Splunge at 7:42 AM on June 28, 2016 [1 favorite]

Has Needy gone on a racist twitter rant yet?
posted by late afternoon dreaming hotel at 7:42 AM on June 28, 2016 [1 favorite]

As mightshould mentioned, I already have one of these. If this intrigues you, I whole-heartedly suggest getting a roomba. We named ours Mo, after the cleaning bot in Wall-E. He constantly needs help. He gets stuck on the doorjamb and under the couch. He constantly needs help finding the dock, even if it is less than three feet away. And he makes a happy beeping sound when you show him where it is.
posted by domo at 7:43 AM on June 28, 2016 [6 favorites]

The first time it got stuck in the cables under my desk would be the last time....

Arguably, Needy could serve as a tester for good equipment cable hygiene and organization.
posted by GenjiandProust at 7:46 AM on June 28, 2016 [1 favorite]

...I relate to the struggles of Needybot. Possibly more than I'd like to admit...
posted by Deeleybopper at 7:54 AM on June 28, 2016 [2 favorites]

I kind of love him, and I kind of feel like he'd be like a Furby....delightful for about an hour, and then BURN IT WITH FIRE IT WON'T SHUT UP.
posted by xingcat at 8:02 AM on June 28, 2016

They built a robot in order to help it, while homelessness continues to be a growing problem throughout Portland.
posted by elwoodwiles at 8:07 AM on June 28, 2016 [7 favorites]

Needybot may have been made to be needy, but I think--I think--that all Needybot really needs is one wild road trip to Vegas to develop a little self-confidence and break out of his dependency shell. Who's with me?

Needybot is money and doesn't even know it.
posted by phearlez at 8:41 AM on June 28, 2016

Good point, elwoodwiles, though to be fair the Needybot project has a lot of potential to help us study the ways humans interact with the needy, which could ultimately lead to better policy?

Gah I don't know I just LOVE HIS FURRY LITTLE NON-ANTHROPOMORHIC FACE
posted by Mooseli at 9:59 AM on June 28, 2016 [3 favorites]

Here's a different needybot that is more, shall we say, direct.
posted by gold-in-green at 10:05 AM on June 28, 2016

If I worked there, I'd probably end up in a corner at the office holiday party trying to talk to needybot and desperately wishing it was time to leave. But that's me...
posted by tuesdayschild at 10:36 AM on June 28, 2016 [1 favorite]

As a certified lifelong crouton-petter, this makes me sad. And if you need more sadbots, there's also Self-Aware Roomba.
posted by vickyverky at 11:51 AM on June 28, 2016 [5 favorites]

I am starting the long road to learning electronics and maybe eventually robotics in off-hours, and I kind of want to make one of these. Unfortunately, unless it has big wide tires and a gas motor I don't think it'll survive long in our dirt road rural environment.
posted by JHarris at 11:53 AM on June 28, 2016

"Ｗｈａｔ ｉｓ ｍｙ ｐｕｒｐｏｓｅ？"
"You pass butter."
"Ｏｈ ｍｙ Ｇｏｄ．"
"Yeah, welcome to the club pal!"
posted by JHarris at 11:57 AM on June 28, 2016 [3 favorites]

Needybot rolls up to me, needy as usual.
I look down at the Cousin Itt with a giant eye. And I kick it, hard. Winning fieldgoal hard. All the way down the hall.

It utters a horrible wail, half of pain, half of something else, something elemental. What did Needybot do? What did Needybot do? It is only acting as it was programmed. It was made to be thus, and can do no more or less. How could one of these creatures come to hate it with such fury? Why did they make Needybot, if only to make it suffer?

Needybot would never trust again.
posted by JHarris at 12:33 PM on June 28, 2016 [6 favorites]

They built a robot in order to help it, while homelessness continues to be a growing problem throughout Portland.
And they needed a machine to learn about human interaction, sympathy and what not? Kind of grossed out by this; fascinated a little, yet grossed out.
posted by GospelofWesleyWillis at 2:59 PM on June 28, 2016

So Wieden & Kennedy is one of THOSE workplaces- the weight of the work and the pressure to succeed is huge. They tend to employ young folks in their first or second job. In my experience some of them can be brilliant at writing copy or coding ui or designing the logo, but their work people skills still need some polishing. I feel like this is an interesting experiment/training tool.

The ability to be collaborative is an invaluable skill that isn't really taught in college.
posted by LuckyMonkey21 at 3:29 PM on June 28, 2016

The voice on the first site is not ok.
posted by dame at 3:29 PM on June 28, 2016

Okay, also, as someone who is working on a tech/art project about our relationships with machines right now, this project kinda pisses me off. They are so very self-congratulatory about a project that is not very inventive nor a particularly insightful take on the concept. (Even the name is the plainest, least inventive name one could give to a needy robot.) As you can tell even with the Roomba comments above, getting people to anthropomorphize an object is not hard at all. If you make something cute, will people pet it like a puppy? Yes! Will people eventually get sick of it? Probably, but some people are also such inveterate crouton petters (myself included) that they will feel bad leaving it trapped.

Then there is the fact that the capabilities — face capture and path tracking — are pretty straightforward these days. And without an interesting plan (no, "uh, we can't wait to see what we find out!" doesn't count), you are just cutening up data hoovering, which we have plenty of. It is possible the creators think this is what is interesting about new consumer-level robot tech, but if so (a)they should make a better case and (b) they are still wrong.

Overall, I can't help but think that they are taking a very interesting question, doing no research, and making it boring. And yeah, it is the creative tech team of an ad firm and they probably did it to show clients what they can sell and not to ask hard questions, but it really grates.

/rant
posted by dame at 3:48 PM on June 28, 2016 [2 favorites]

Also, here is a much more interesting implementation of the a similar question (from many years ago): Tweenbot.
posted by dame at 3:50 PM on June 28, 2016 [1 favorite]

does it talk? it really does seem like a parody. 30 years ago you could buy a robotic cat from Nolan Bushnell's company that would respond to clap commands, and navigate around a room on its own, backing up when it bumped in to things. is it really just a sketch for Portlandia?
posted by TMezz at 7:14 PM on June 28, 2016

Needybot may have been made to be needy, but I think--I think--that all Needybot really needs is one wild road trip to Vegas to develop a little self-confidence and break out of his dependency shell. Who's with me?

It needs to attend the Survival Research Labs show we are planning for this fall, It can hang with Skullbot and learn the ropes.
posted by boilermonster at 10:27 PM on June 29, 2016 [1 favorite]