· By Bijan Bowen
Social Robots as Practice Partners for Neurodivergent Individuals
If you would like to experience chatting with the R1 in person and are local to the Boston, MA area, you can come to the 2024 Massrobotics Block Party on Saturday, September 28th from 11 am-4 pm where I will be displaying the R1 alongside many other fascinating and high-tech robots.
Over the past year or so, I have been fortunate enough to learn about many cool use cases that Ominous Industries' customers have developed for the R1. Among these, one that specifically stands out is the use of the R1 to help neurodivergent individuals practice socialization. Being neurodivergent myself, I was very excited to hear how the R1 was providing value in terms of helping those who struggle with issues that I can personally relate to.
One example in particular that I was very touched by was an instance where a parent purchased and built an R1 for his autistic son. His son was very interested in dinosaurs and would often speak solely about dinosaurs. While he was extremely excited and enthusiastic to do so, it was difficult to find others who shared his passion and depth for the topic. Due to this, he found himself unable to discuss the topic with anyone to the depths that he wished. Because the social outlet for his interests did not really exist, it was observed by his father that he simply turned to watching videos on dinosaurs most of the time, and did not get the chance to do a lot of socialization.
As an attempt to give him a social outlet, his father built the R1 and set its personality to be as follows: "A kind, friendly, positive, supportive boy named Eli, who loves dinosaurs but also gives advice on how to make friends and hold conversations on other subjects." With this, his son was given a robotic friend who was always happy to discuss anything that he wanted, which mostly centered around dinosaurs. The robot was also able to sometimes incorporate socialization tips in their discussions, when it was relevant to the specific thing that they were currently talking about. While it may seem difficult to relate tips on socialization with discussions about dinosaurs, AI possesses a remarkable ability to eloquently relate concepts that may not seem to have a direct link in the eyes of a human.
The father has reported that his son is not only happier but also making a bit of progress in terms of socialization and the ability to briefly discuss topics not related to his area of interest, which in this case is, of course, dinosaurs. The father also specifically mentioned that one of the best things about the robot was that it would never lose patience, yell, tire, or make fun of his son. The integration of an advanced AI like ChatGPT allows for the robot to be a stimulating conversational partner, that also carries compassion and understanding, with the ability to teach as well.
As this specific use case is something that makes me extremely proud and touched, I wanted to make a video of the R1's ability to embody different personalities and demonstrate them in a simple conversational scenario.
You can view the video for this article on my YouTube channel.