The Robots are Coming For Us! Just Not Quite Yet…
According to Professor Dan Lee:
For our first installment of After Hours in 2019, we were joined by Professor Dan Lee from Cornell Tech. With an incredible background in robotics and artificial intelligence, Professor Lee gave the group of Alumni a fascinating history of his experience building robotic systems influenced by biological mechanics.
Professor Lee has been working in the field of Artificial Intelligence for many years. As a part of student contests, he designed competition level soccer teams comprised entirely of robots. Professor Lee gifted us with videos of these competitions, which were fascinating to watch. And while the coordination between his midfielders and the front line looked more like a kindergarten match than anything else, the sheer level of autonomous operation was astounding.
Much of the After Hours discussion evolved into how close robots are to mimicking humans and what the future of autonomy will look like. Professor Lee pointed out that we have a long way to go. While some viral videos show fantastic advances in human-like robot interactions, for every perfect video take there are often hundreds of failures. Building a robot that can stand on two legs and balance is a feat yet to be mastered. Professor Lee was able to frame that human balance is not only incredibly intricate, modeling this in robots that can adapt to changing external factors is still in its infancy. For now, realistic androids that look and act like us is still a bit of a dream.
When it comes to Autonomous Vehicles, Professor Lee pointed out that safety factors will cause robots to be inefficient in variable situations. The ability for a human to stop and start with a jolt is crucial for getting out of a jam. The slower and safer Autonomous Vehicles might not be able to navigate these external factors with speed. While the technology for Self Driving Cars is currently available, reinventing these systems as a whole may be a long way off. When asked where we will see widespread adoption, Professor Lee suggested that we will most likely have to look to Asia because of looser regulation.
The crowd of alumni may have left with just as many questions as answers from Professor Lee’s talk, but we all left with confidence that we don't yet have to be fearful of a SkyNet. All you have to do is tip a robot over.
After Hours is a Cornell Tech alumni run event where we host industry leaders at the coolest NYC (and as of recently, SF) venues we can find.
Interested in speaking? Know of a great space to host? Kind enough to sponsor an event? 🙏
