Robots built to look like a dead loved-one will soon go on sale.
The PLEA2 uses artificial intelligence and a camera to assess the facial emotions and body movements of the person in front of it.
Creator Tomislav Stip-ancic, from the University of Zagreb in Croatia, said the invention could also be used as a “care robot” by older people, such as Catherine Tate’s comedy character, Nan.
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Dr Stipancic said: “Currently the robot can just copy facial expressions of the person by reasoning about their emotions. The next step is for it to guide interaction with humans. For example, if it hears a baby cry, it may react.”
Professor Tracy Har-wood, of Leicester’s De Montfort University where PLEA2 was showcased this week, said: “You could recreate the mask of a family member and use that.”
Inventors hope it will be available within five years – and it could cost just a few hundred pounds.
However, many experts still think arterficial intelligence has a long way to go.
Talking about it in terms of its possible military use to the Daily Star, Professor Peter Lee, a military drone and automation expert at the University of Portsmouth said: “Autonomous weapons as they are being conceived at the moment are very far short of the science fiction that we see in iRobot and Terminator and similar films.”
Others fear that AI research could come with catastrophic consequences for humanity if it goes too far..
Researcher Michael Cohen, who was part of a recent research paper on the subject, he said: "Under the conditions we have identified, our conclusion is much stronger than that of any previous publication—an existential catastrophe is not just possible but likely."
In an interview with VICE, he added: "In a world with infinite resources, I would be extremely uncertain about what would happen. In a world with finite resources, there's unavoidable competition for these resources.
"And if you're in a competition with something capable of outfoxing you at every turn, then you shouldn't expect to win."
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