Among the luminaries appearing this year at the annual meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative, part of the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation, are household names such as Bill Gates, actor Ted Danson, Harvard’s Lawrence Summers, and … Pepper? Pepper, a “social humanoid robot” from Japan, is billed as the “first humanoid robot in the world capable of recognizing universal emotions.” The Clinton Foundation includes Pepper along with his more traditional human counterparts in a list of speakers for the annual gathering that begins later this week.
Pepper, the 2014 offspring of Japanese companies SoftBank Mobile and Aldebaran, is intended to be the first in a line of “companion” robots, intended more to interact socially with humans rather than serve them. The bio provided for Pepper by the Clinton Foundation notes that he is “equipped with many features for communicating naturally with those around him through the most intuitive interface we know: voice, touch, and emotions.”
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Despite his newcomer status, Pepper has not been relegated to a conference breakout session, but rather the robot will sit (or more likely stand, as it does not appear his anatomy facilitates sitting) on a panel entitled “Looking to the Next Frontier.” Interestingly, the session description lumps Pepper in as one of the “leaders from the private, public, and civil society sectors” who will discuss the future of technology and how to expand its availability to all. Among the other leaders is Sir Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group which includes Virgin Galactic, billed as the “world’s first commercial spaceline.” The panel discussion will be moderated by astrophysicist and director of the Hayden Planetarium, Neil deGrasse Tyson:
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Pepper’s siblings (clones?) greet, inform, and entertain customers in Softbank Mobile stores and are even available for purchase by the public in Japan. Although Aldebaran’s stated goal is “to create robots for the well being of humans, kind robots living with humans as a new artificial species,” Pepper has already seen the dark side of his creator’s species. Earlier this month, an inebriated man was arrested after kicking and damaging one Softbank store’s Pepper. Reportedly, the “damaged Pepper now moves slower,” but there is no word whether or not the robot attempted to emotionally engage the enraged shopper.
Pepper’s appearance at the Clinton Global Initiative meeting is scheduled for the third day of the gathering, Monday, September 28, at one in the afternoon. Although President Bill Clinton and his daughter Chelsea will both attend and participate in the meeting, current presidential candidate Hillary Clinton will not be present.
Although Mrs. Clinton stepped down from the Foundation’s board when she started her campaign, the official name of the foundation continues to bear her name, and she is still noted as a “co-author” for the foundation’s blog.
