From Jeeves to Jarvis (and Bertie to Mark)

 






Mark Zuckerberg wants to build a robot that can serve as a personal home assistant, like a valet or butler. This is his resolution (he calls it ‘personal challenge’) for 2016.

https://www.facebook.com/zuck/posts/10102577175875681

He likes to compare his Artificially Intelligent (AI) butler with Jarvis, the fictional character from Marvel films Iron Man. In the movie, Jarvis (Just a Rather Very Intelligent System!) is built by the Iron Man himself, using AI technologies.

Butlers have a come a long way since Jeeves, the fictional faithful manservant created by the legendary author P. G. Woodhouse. Jeeves not only takes care of his master Bertie Wooster, but provides ingenious solutions to all of Bertie’s problems, from selecting the right socks to rescuing him from breach of promise suits.  

Zuckerberg’s AI butler would help him to run his house and help with his work too. He would understand Zuckerberg’s voice and control music, light, temperature and so on. The butler would even take care of Zuckerberg’s little daughter.

Zuckerberg’s challenge only highlights the progress that robotics has experienced in the last few years. It seems likely that in the next few years robots will become household items. Not only the technology is available but it is becoming cheap enough to be commercially viable. Very soon we should be able to buy a robot to wash our dishes and hang the clothes for drying.

         By Devesh Rajadhyax

          Co-Founder, Cere Labs

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