According to Amazon internal documents seen by Insiderthe company believes it has found the keys to unlock the potential of its Astro robot: They call it the Burnham project and it’s extremely similar to what we saw in The Jetsons with Rosie or Robotina..
In accordance with The Vergethis is a new secret artificial intelligence (AI) robot project that Amazon is developing that, according to the documents, adds a layer of “conversational spoken interface and intelligence” to a smart home robot, which could even monitor the kids after school.
An improved Astro powered by Burnham could use large language models and other advanced AI to become a home robot that understands the context of a busy home and responds appropriately.
According to Insider, the documents indicate that the technology “remembers what it saw and understood” and the robot can “engage in a question-and-answer dialogue about what it saw”.
Amazon’s Robot
The documents describe that the AI is able to find a stove on or a faucet running and track its owner to alert them. You could check on someone who has fallen and call 911 if it is an emergency. According to the papers, he could help find their keys, check to see if a window was left open overnight and monitor whether the children had any friends after school.
The above are all things you can do to some degree with existing smart home technology, but they require multiple steps, devices, and actions.
However, what is most interesting is that Amazon seems to be exploring starting more complex tasks. An example given was a robot that sees broken glass on the floor, knows that it presents a hazard, and prioritizes sweeping it up before someone steps on it. Essentially, it detects problems and potentially resolves them.
Amazon acknowledges in the documents that it still has a long way to go before Burnham can become a product. In fact, you can’t buy today’s not-so-smart Astro without an invite and for $1,600, either. We are far from having Rosie at home, but we are getting closer.