Robotics hasn’t taken off in quite the same way as artificial intelligence, but it’s cropping up in unexpected places.
Anduril CEO addressed the Reindustrialize Summit conference in Detroit as a robotic avatar of himself. Instead of being physically present on the stage, Luckey was in a completely different location. A robot on the stage, dressed as him, was repeating his movements to give the impression that he was there in real time.
“I finally pulled off my long-standing goal of speaking at a conference via VR telerobotics! Thousands of miles of travel saved, and no chance of Luigi,” Luckey posted on X, referring to both the relative safety of the arrangement and the time he’d saved.
As could be seen from the pictures shared, Luckey was wearing a VR headset in a remote location, and had a microphone next to him. He could presumably see the audience in VR, and got the feel of addressing the crowd live.
Meanwhile the crowd in Detroit saw a robot on stage, wearing the same Hawaiian shirt and shorts that Luckey was wearing. Luckey’s voice was projected to the audience, while the robot made the same gestures that Luckey was making.
The whole set up felt a bit surreal. Given how the robot didn’t have a face and had no expressions, it was hard to reconcile the voice to the robot. But seeing a physical presence on stage, even if slightly disembodied, was presumably better than doing a regular video call for the audience. Luckey, too, would’ve likely had a more authentic experience of addressing the audience than through a video call.
VR has been in the news for years, but doesn’t yet have many practical applications. Robotics, though, could act as an accelerant, enabling people to be present in locations other than their own, like Luckey was while addressing the conference. And while it’s still early days, the demo shows that the basic tech does seem to be in place to make such a marriage of VR with robotics a reality in the coming years.