Boston Dynamics robot dog can now verbally answer questions posed by its human handlers

A team of programmers has integrated OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Text-to-Speech voice modulation into Boston Dynamics' robot dog, Spot.

Santiago Valdarrama posted a video on Twitter, showcasing how they programmed Spot to verbally answer system questions with the help of OpenAI's tool.

These robots perform automated missions every day, which include "miles-long, hard-to-understand configuration files" that only engineers can comprehend. ChatGPT comes into play here by allowing the robots to process these files and mission results. Coupled with voice-enabled interface, Spot can now understand and answer questions relating to the mission.

The Twitter video shows Spot responding to questions and even adds amusing gestures such as shaking its head to say no or bowing to say yes. This new development has many people speculating about the future of robotics and the potential implications of artificial intelligence.

While the development of robots with AI capabilities has raised concerns about the possibility of a robot uprising, integrating chatbots like ChatGPT into robots has always been a part of the plan. Microsoft released a paper in February outlining design principles for ChatGPT integration into robotics, saying,

"We believe that our work is just the start of a shift in how we develop robotics systems, and we hope to inspire other researchers to jump into this exciting field."

This new development with Spot is just one example of the many exciting advancements we can expect in the field of robotics in the future.