The International Space Station (ISS) program is a joint program that involves several space organizations around the globe, including ESA and NASA. Recently ISS got a new robot friend, CIMON. The new robot onboard the Space Station has a smiley face and looks cute. Though, in reality, CIMON is every bit as evil as the Sophia humanoid.
CIMON Is a New Robot on ISS
CIMON’s creators designed the CIMON robot to be a friend to ISS astronauts. The journeys can be long and lonely at times for humans. Thus, additional activities like communication with robots sound like a great idea.
Seemingly full of good intentions, the machine is not proving to be very cooperative. The robot rolls its eyes at times and does not seem to listen to the astronauts’ instructions. When ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst told the staff that CIMON has technical difficulties, the robot responded, “Be nice please”. This provoked a reaction from Gerst, who accused CIMON the robot of accusing him of not being nice. CIMON then sulked.
CIMON Is Remarkably like Sophia the Humanoid Robot
The ISS robot CIMON reminds us of Sophia the Humanoid Robot, which during an interview admitted that she would like to destroy humans. Surely, we can take her lightly for now. Though, we do not know if Sophia was telling the truth.
CIMON, when he does not listen to the ISS astronauts’ instructions, seems to have a mind of his own. He is remarkably similar in terms of conscience to Sophia. These two robots remind us of those evil Dalek robots in Dr. Who. The Daleks had memory banks and seemed to have minds of their own. Even more, they were bent on destroying everything that was not Dalek. Let us hope that AI will not evolve to the point when it develops teams of its own.
