Eli Saslow

It looked almost like a desk lamp, maybe a foot and a half tall.

It had next to it a sort of iPad screen with a camera.

And they plugged it into the wall.

And this little lamp lit up.

And it started to bend and bow and dance and move.

It was made by this company, Intuition Robotics, which has been working to design artificial intelligence that works for people as they age.

This company likes to say that they're trying to build robots with soul.

Robots that don't just wait for you to ask them something, but robots that work proactively to become part of your life.

Most of the AI that we interact with right now sort of sits dormant and waits for us to prompt it.

We say, hey, can you help me write this email?

Can you answer this question that I have?

But if we're not engaging the AI, it's not engaging us.

This technology is built to be constantly proactive.

It doesn't wait for you.

At least eight times a day, this technology is going to ask you a question.

It's going to jump in and tell you a joke.

It's constantly monitoring the room through its cameras, its listening devices.

It's constantly trying to assess, is this person open right now for conversation?

And if they are open to conversation, what's the best way for me to start that conversation?

She was sort of freaked out.