Robotics company Boston Dynamics turned its robotic dog Spot into a chatty guide who gave tours of the company’s premises using the ChatGPT artificial intelligence engine.
Boston Dynamics used the OpenAI ChatGPT API and some open source Large Language Models (LLM) to make Spot speech-capable. The robot was then equipped with a speaker and text-to-speech capabilities. A gripper was placed in front of the robot to imitate a mouth.
According to Boston Dynamics software engineer Matt Klingensmith, the team gave Spot a short script for each room. The robot then combined that script with images it receives from cameras on the gripper and body, allowing it to learn more about what it sees before creating a response.
Boston Dynamics also discovered a few surprises when testing Spot as a guide. In one instance, the team asked Spot who its “parents” were, then the robot went into a room with pictures of previously produced Spot models. In one case, Spot claimed that Stretch, a box-moving robot, was designed for yoga instead.
Source: Boston Dynamics