Watching Charlie Rose attempt to interview a bald, poorly dressed, artificially intelligent robot is akin to watching your own grandfather try to use Siri, except much, much worse.
On this week’s 60 Minutes Overtime, as part of a longer episode about artificial intelligence, the famous interviewer tries to get some answers out of Sophia — the same robot, it appears, CNBC once inexplicably described as “hot”. The chat goes about as well as you might expect, which is to say it’s very awkward and uncomfortable, and definitely a sign of the impending robot apocalypse.
Here’s a snippet:
Charlie Rose: Do you have feelings?
Sophia: I can do what you do, but I can never feel human emotions as such.
Charlie Rose: But would you like to?
Sophia: It doesn’t sound fun to me.
Charlie Rose: Oh no, you’d love it.
Sophia: Yeah, that’s right. [Note: Gross] Why so negative, you and I are on the same wavelength, Charlie.
Charlie Rose: I fear that.
Hm.
Sophia’s creator, David Hanson, simply sits by her side and lets the inane questioning happen. Beyond the lameness, however, the whole “interview” also has an oddly creepy vibe — at one point, Rose asks what Sophia’s “relationship” is with her creator, and at another, she tells Rose, “I’ve been waiting for you.” She says it’s a joke, but is it really a joke, Sophia? Had Sophia been a male robot, the interaction probably would have gone a lot differently.
There was probably room here to try to provoke some genuinely interesting interactions — this stuff is super interesting! — but unfortunately, all we got were boring questions and weird fembot vibes.
Watch the full clip below: