Move over Boston Dynamics, the Mouse is taking over
November 25, 2023 12:28 PM Subscribe
It began with robots made to throw up in the air to do stunt work. How Disney Designed a Robotic Spider-Man [7m] Then came free-standing, walking, controlled character actors. Disney Imagineers Develop Cutting-edge, Free-roaming Robotic Actor [1m15s] They began to integrate some self-learning AI features and more real movement. Disney Imagineers Demo New Relatable Robotic Character [1m] But just last month came fully autonomous, self-learning completely adorable little robots. A New Approach to Disney’s Robotic Character Pipeline [1m] Imagineers Test BD-1 Style ROAMING DROIDS in Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge at Disneyland [3m30s] A pet AT-ST walking around my house? TAKE MY MONEY!
If you think AI isn't an existential danger, watch the whole run of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and notice how Toodles develops self awareness. We were warned. So let's stand up, and do the Hot Dog Dance.
posted by ocschwar at 1:29 PM on November 25, 2023 [8 favorites]
posted by ocschwar at 1:29 PM on November 25, 2023 [8 favorites]
I've seen this episode of The Simpsons
posted by Reyturner at 1:34 PM on November 25, 2023 [7 favorites]
posted by Reyturner at 1:34 PM on November 25, 2023 [7 favorites]
But can the cute robot find the magic fairy and become a Real Boy?
posted by kaibutsu at 1:58 PM on November 25, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by kaibutsu at 1:58 PM on November 25, 2023 [3 favorites]
Do you actually want to make Westworld happen?
Yes. Yes, I do.
posted by Faint of Butt at 2:13 PM on November 25, 2023 [3 favorites]
Yes. Yes, I do.
posted by Faint of Butt at 2:13 PM on November 25, 2023 [3 favorites]
Thinking about it more, they look like Wall-E and an AT-ST had a child together. Which is sort of exactly what one might expect Disney to produce.
I guess one of the things they have to overcome is the thing were park guests try to break any part of the park they encounter unless they are somehow inspired not to. And so maybe there is a hope that these little things are cute enough that people will feel protective about them instead of wanting to test what the limits are before they break it.
posted by hippybear at 2:24 PM on November 25, 2023 [1 favorite]
I guess one of the things they have to overcome is the thing were park guests try to break any part of the park they encounter unless they are somehow inspired not to. And so maybe there is a hope that these little things are cute enough that people will feel protective about them instead of wanting to test what the limits are before they break it.
posted by hippybear at 2:24 PM on November 25, 2023 [1 favorite]
Disney Imagineers Develop Cutting-edge, Free-roaming Robotic Actor
Is this where Roddy McDowall came from?
posted by credulous at 2:52 PM on November 25, 2023 [3 favorites]
Is this where Roddy McDowall came from?
posted by credulous at 2:52 PM on November 25, 2023 [3 favorites]
The cuteness quotient of the roaming droids is off the charts, but it would be even nicer if these things were equipped with, like, hands? So they could pick up stuff (a dropped book or phone) from the floor and schlepp it back to you, or grab a drink . . . In other words, were useful robots.
Robot development (in the usefulness department) seriously lags A.I. It'll be a crying shame when A.I., in the next few years, is up to the task of controlling robots intelligently, but is at a lack for hardware to control. Large or small, A.I.-assisted devices have the potential to simplify daily life, as well as become a tremendous boon for differently abled users. That is, if hardware kept lockstep with A.I.
Please, robotic engineers, put your toys aside and set your sights on practicality.
posted by Gordion Knott at 2:59 PM on November 25, 2023 [1 favorite]
Robot development (in the usefulness department) seriously lags A.I. It'll be a crying shame when A.I., in the next few years, is up to the task of controlling robots intelligently, but is at a lack for hardware to control. Large or small, A.I.-assisted devices have the potential to simplify daily life, as well as become a tremendous boon for differently abled users. That is, if hardware kept lockstep with A.I.
Please, robotic engineers, put your toys aside and set your sights on practicality.
posted by Gordion Knott at 2:59 PM on November 25, 2023 [1 favorite]
they look like Wall-E and an AT-ST had a child together
I'm just going to assume this pornography exists and set my curiosity aside.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 3:02 PM on November 25, 2023 [9 favorites]
I'm just going to assume this pornography exists and set my curiosity aside.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 3:02 PM on November 25, 2023 [9 favorites]
When I worked for a jewelry manufacturer in Orlando in the mid 90s, I got to deliver product to the park. I got to use the employees entrance and had to travel the underground tunnels. They are vast BTW. The characters who were on break would hang out there with their chay heads off ..smoking cigarettes, or playing cards....Best thing I ever saw in the park.
posted by Czjewel at 3:06 PM on November 25, 2023 [10 favorites]
posted by Czjewel at 3:06 PM on November 25, 2023 [10 favorites]
I'm just going to assume this pornography exists and set my curiosity aside.
Rule 34 is real.
posted by hippybear at 3:12 PM on November 25, 2023 [2 favorites]
Rule 34 is real.
posted by hippybear at 3:12 PM on November 25, 2023 [2 favorites]
Rule 35: And if it doesn't, AI will make it for you.
posted by tspae at 4:30 PM on November 25, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by tspae at 4:30 PM on November 25, 2023 [2 favorites]
It all makes sense now. If AI learns what humans are like from Disneyworld, Skynet’s mission is inevitable.
posted by warriorqueen at 4:30 PM on November 25, 2023
posted by warriorqueen at 4:30 PM on November 25, 2023
Yes. Yes, I do.
It ain't all sexy sex bots, FOB. Those Yul Brynner cowboys will mess you up.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 5:16 PM on November 25, 2023 [1 favorite]
It ain't all sexy sex bots, FOB. Those Yul Brynner cowboys will mess you up.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 5:16 PM on November 25, 2023 [1 favorite]
Oh man, too funny, the place where they tested the stunt bots is right across the street from where I work. It was all pretty secret but those things would get launched above the roof line so we would see them pop up and disappear again all the time. Around the 44 second mark of the first YT clip you can see one of our buildings in the background.
posted by Hairy Lobster at 6:13 PM on November 25, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by Hairy Lobster at 6:13 PM on November 25, 2023 [3 favorites]
It began with robots made to throw up in the air to do stunt work.
Understandable. If they made me do stunt work, I’d probably throw up in the air as well.
posted by zamboni at 6:59 PM on November 25, 2023 [16 favorites]
Understandable. If they made me do stunt work, I’d probably throw up in the air as well.
posted by zamboni at 6:59 PM on November 25, 2023 [16 favorites]
Please, robotic engineers, put your toys aside and set your sights on practicality.
There is some good work going on merging robotics with natural language instruction, via multimodal LLMs. It looks like robotics is an area where LLMs can actually push things forward quite quickly.
posted by kaibutsu at 7:34 PM on November 25, 2023 [2 favorites]
There is some good work going on merging robotics with natural language instruction, via multimodal LLMs. It looks like robotics is an area where LLMs can actually push things forward quite quickly.
posted by kaibutsu at 7:34 PM on November 25, 2023 [2 favorites]
Five Nights at Walt’s
posted by gottabefunky at 8:17 PM on November 25, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by gottabefunky at 8:17 PM on November 25, 2023 [2 favorites]
Seriously, that thing is a chicken stormtrooper.
posted by gottabefunky at 8:20 PM on November 25, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by gottabefunky at 8:20 PM on November 25, 2023 [2 favorites]
Do you actually want to make Westworld happen?
Honestly, can you tell me it would be worse than the current reality?
posted by nubs at 8:39 PM on November 25, 2023 [1 favorite]
Honestly, can you tell me it would be worse than the current reality?
posted by nubs at 8:39 PM on November 25, 2023 [1 favorite]
Pretty sure that "robotic Spider-Man" is canonically the Spider-Slayer.
posted by Halloween Jack at 8:40 PM on November 25, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by Halloween Jack at 8:40 PM on November 25, 2023 [2 favorites]
Did you ever hear about the time that Disney built an autonomous quadruped robotic dinosaur. I did, cause I helped with it. Damn thing was terrifying. Glad to see they went with a less crushable format. :)
posted by drewbage1847 at 11:15 PM on November 25, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by drewbage1847 at 11:15 PM on November 25, 2023 [3 favorites]
They set a slamhound on Turner’s trail in New Delhi, slotted it to his pheromones and the color of his hair. It caught up with him on a street called Chandni Chauk and came scrambling for his rented BMW through a forest of bare brown legs and pedicab tires. Its core was a kilogram of recrystallized hexogene and flaked TNT.
He didn’t see it coming. The last he saw of India was the pink stucco facade of a place called the Khush-Oil Hotel.
posted by DreamerFi at 3:14 AM on November 26, 2023 [11 favorites]
He didn’t see it coming. The last he saw of India was the pink stucco facade of a place called the Khush-Oil Hotel.
posted by DreamerFi at 3:14 AM on November 26, 2023 [11 favorites]
I, for one, welcome our new robo-cutic overlords
posted by chavenet at 4:29 AM on November 26, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by chavenet at 4:29 AM on November 26, 2023 [1 favorite]
They're going to make everything smart and we're going to have to live with it. They might not all talk directly to us, but everything is going to gossip to one another about us. The robot vacuum is going to know you and know what you've been up to. The servants always know everything. And your home -- the big machine that coughs you out in the morning and swallows you up at night -- will have a lares/genius loci that knows you better than any human being knows you, because it's going to sniff your shorts and your packets.
posted by pracowity at 6:43 AM on November 26, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by pracowity at 6:43 AM on November 26, 2023 [3 favorites]
Please, robotic engineers, put your toys aside and set your sights on practicality
The promise of self-driving cars has been slow to be realized, because of the mistaken belief that all you need to do is to match or surpass human driving capability. This is pointlessly hard when you consider that the most successful current implementations of driverless environments - eg handling of shipping containers at a port - have enhancements to the environment and centralized coordination.
Similarly, it's fanciful to anticipate a humanoid robotic assistant that's independently capable of full autonomous function in a purely human environment. The best solution would also have substantial environmental modifications. Eg a central controller that can control and monitor light, heat and all appliances, ; pots, pans, oven racks etc would have sockets for robotic arms to securely lock into, a geared track on stairs for secure climbing, etc.
Also, don't discount play. It's a vital creative exercise that often leads to practical outcomes. Today's toys are often tomorrow's killer apps. Òoo, wrong choice of words, maybe.
posted by Artful Codger at 7:53 AM on November 26, 2023 [1 favorite]
The promise of self-driving cars has been slow to be realized, because of the mistaken belief that all you need to do is to match or surpass human driving capability. This is pointlessly hard when you consider that the most successful current implementations of driverless environments - eg handling of shipping containers at a port - have enhancements to the environment and centralized coordination.
Similarly, it's fanciful to anticipate a humanoid robotic assistant that's independently capable of full autonomous function in a purely human environment. The best solution would also have substantial environmental modifications. Eg a central controller that can control and monitor light, heat and all appliances, ; pots, pans, oven racks etc would have sockets for robotic arms to securely lock into, a geared track on stairs for secure climbing, etc.
Also, don't discount play. It's a vital creative exercise that often leads to practical outcomes. Today's toys are often tomorrow's killer apps. Òoo, wrong choice of words, maybe.
posted by Artful Codger at 7:53 AM on November 26, 2023 [1 favorite]
Westworld! Party time! Excellent!
posted by slogger at 9:51 AM on November 26, 2023 [5 favorites]
posted by slogger at 9:51 AM on November 26, 2023 [5 favorites]
Will the world start to take disability accommodations seriously when we need them for peoples' robots?
It sucks, but I'll take it.
posted by MrVisible at 10:07 AM on November 26, 2023 [4 favorites]
It sucks, but I'll take it.
posted by MrVisible at 10:07 AM on November 26, 2023 [4 favorites]
I dunno about Boston Dynamics moving over. All those walking bots had the same awkward shuffling mincing steps that Boston Dynamics got rid of many years ago. It's like watchibg a Boston Dynamics bot from 2010 while wearing a very nice costume.
Disney, as always, makes shit look GOOD. But the underlying tech isn't particularly impressive compared to what others are doing.
posted by sotonohito at 8:35 AM on November 27, 2023
Disney, as always, makes shit look GOOD. But the underlying tech isn't particularly impressive compared to what others are doing.
posted by sotonohito at 8:35 AM on November 27, 2023
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posted by Ursula Hitler at 1:15 PM on November 25, 2023 [9 favorites]