Comment Section for Why Intempus thinks robots should have a human physiological state | TechCrunch

The article on TechCrunch discusses the vision of Intempus, a robotics company founded by 19-year-old Teddy Warner. Intempus aims to retrofit existing robots with human-like emotional expressions, using kinetic movements, to enhance human-robot interactions and aid in prediction of robot movements. This data will also be used to improve AI model training. The company believes that, like humans, robots need a 'physiological state' to understand the world more effectively. The idea was conceived during Warner's time at AI research lab Midjourney, where he noticed the challenge AI models faced in achieving spatial reasoning due to a lack of such reasoning in the data they were trained on. Intempus initially used fMRI data to explore this concept, but later found success with sweat data from polygraphs. Other areas such as body temperature, heart rate, and photoplethysmography are also being explored. Currently, the company is focusing on retrofitting existing robots, but it may build its own emotionally intelligent robots in the future. Intempus is part of the Thiel Fellowship program and has signed seven enterprise robotics partners.

The webpage is a TechCrunch article discussing the vision of Intempus, a robotics company founded by Teddy Warner, to develop robots with a human physiological state. Intempus aims to retrofit existing robots with human-like emotional expressions that would improve human-robot interaction and enhance the training of AI models. The company uses kinetic movements to convey these expressions, inspired by how humans and animals communicate non-verbally. Warner believes that by introducing a physiological state (the "B" step between observation and action), robots can better understand and interact with the world in a more human-like way. Initially, Warner experimented with fMRI data to develop this technology but found success with sweat data from a polygraph test. This led to further exploration into other physiological indicators like body temperature, heart rate, and photoplethysmography. Since its launch in 2024, Intempus has focused on research and developing these emotional capabilities for robots. It has also secured partnerships with seven enterprise robotics companies. Intempus is part of the Thiel Fellowship program, which provides young entrepreneurs with funding to build their companies. The next steps for Intempus include hiring more staff and testing the technology with humans. While the current focus is on retrofitting existing robots, Warner doesn't exclude the possibility of creating their own emotionally intelligent robots in the future.