Roboticist Dr. David Hanson And AI Pioneer Dr. Ben Goertzel Present Grace, The World’s First Humanoid Robot Assistant
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Leading roboticist Dr. David Hanson and AI pioneer Dr. Ben Goertzel announce the launch of Grace, the world’s first human-like robotic assistant for elderly care and biodata management. The product of Awakening Health Ltd. (AHL), a joint venture between Hanson Robotics (HR) and AI firm Singularity Studio (SSI), Grace adapts the Hanson Sophia 2020 robot platform and SingularityNet’s (SNET) blockchain-based AI to meet acute medical and elder care needs imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Awakening Health is testing alpha prototypes of Grace in a series of bold steps to deploy robotic and avatar medical assistants products, in 2021. Building on previous healthcare successes with Hanson robots (autism treatment, eldercare research and safety testing at the US Centers for Disease Control CDC) and SNET AI (disease analytics and therapeutic dialogue), Grace initially embodies the best of these leading-edge technologies within a new product to help elderly users via friendly therapeutic interactions.
Grace combines AI-powered character robots with animated personality to engage patients naturally and emotionally – providing a variety of benefits including cognitive stimulation, intuitive communication, and secure gathering and management of patient data for use in advanced machine learning and next-gen medicine, all while facilitating social distancing for COVID-19 safety.
All-Star Management Cast
“This merging of the tech and medical arena is an important initiative by the world’s leading robotics and AI team,” says David Lake, AHL CEO. “The stellar team previously connected through Sophia, the most advanced, celebrity humanoid robot. Following years of serving university research, museums and other industries, HR launched Sophia 2020 for R&D and B2B applications."
Now, Sophia’s sister, Grace, allows for quick deployment with existing hardware, AI and charm to serve the healthcare industry. Hanson and Goertzel’s robotics and AI teams span the globe with groups operating in Greater China, the US, Europe, Brazil, Russia, Ethiopia and India. AHL brings this technology brain trust together with an all-star cast from the business and medical world, led by Asian industry veteran David Lake and leading medical researchers.
On the hardware side, AHL is led by the creative engineering of David Hanson, Founder and CEO of HR and creator of Sophia. “All essential technology is in place for mass scale production of Grace in cooperation with our medical partners,” notes Hanson. “We are testing Grace prototypes and expect trial deployment in partner facilities within six months. Grace’s features allow interaction with elder care patients, provide comfort and companionship and deliver a host of key bio data management functions.”
The AI side is led by Ben Goertzel, the Father of AGI and SNET Founder who worked for years as Hanson’s Chief Scientist. Goertzel has done significant medical research, in particular in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s with the National Institute of Health (NIH) and CDC. “Grace is the perfect interactive biodata capture interface for our Open Cog and SNET platform,” adds Goertzel. “Her comforting and human manner relaxes patients and allows for important collection of biodata to assist patients, provide much needed support and lead to major discoveries in areas like neural degenerative diseases.”
To certify user requirements and testing in existing facilities, AHL is creating strategic partnerships in the US, China and Korea. The first such relationship is with Connected Living, a US leader in personalized technology solutions for seniors. Given the location of the AHL laboratory in the Science Park and Tsuen Wan industrial center of Hong Kong, China is an important markets and key relationships will be announced in the near future.
Connected Living
CL brings relationships with hundreds of senior living communities and medical facilities in the US and worldwide. CL’s enterprise content management system creates operational efficiencies, manages communication and information enhances person-centered wellness through an integrated ecosystem that includes mobile, voice and robotics. CL will leverage this tech suite and core relationships to pinpoint essential services and user requirements as well as support an investigative clinical trial program at specially chosen facilities and customize its product line for AHL to roll-out in the Asian region.
CL and SSI will use AI to analyse collective data for predictive socially determinant relationships and deploy AI-driven sensors for increased safety and emotional well-being solutions. CL’s exclusive North American distribution of Temi, the world's first non-humanoid robotic assistant, allows SSI and AHL to provide social AI personalities and virtual avatars that go beyond simple tasks.
“We see this strategic partnership as incredibly important for our core aging services market space,” says Sarah Hoit, CEO of Connected Living and a strong advocate in the area of Alzheimer’s treatment. “The scope and breath of what Awakening aims to achieve is of the highest order, and we are eager to support this initiative in line with our desire and mission to lead the way as an innovator in biotech health care services.” SSI CEO Bill Inman concludes there is no end to the contributions strong AI can deliver when it comes to analyzing biodata, “As each year goes by AI’s ability to support biodata research to provide new therapies and treatments is enhanced by technological advances.”
A partnership between Hanson Robotics and Singularity Studio
Grace has been possible thanks to the collaboration between Hanson Robotics and Singularity Studio. Hanson Robotics is an AI and robotics company dedicated to creating socially intelligent machines that enrich the quality of our lives. The company develops renowned robot characters, such as Sophia, the world’s first robot citizen, which serve as AI platforms for scientific research, education, healthcare, sales and service, entertainment, and other research and service applications. HRs’ scientists, artists, roboticists, and engineers strive to bring robots to life as true friends who deeply understand and care for people, and collaborate with us in pursuit of ever-greater good.
On the other hand, Singularity Studio supplies cutting-edge enterprise AI software across a variety of vertical markets with a particular focus on healthcare. Studio’s software base includes proprietary AI methods leveraging deep neural net, probabilistic logic, evolutionary learning and other technologies alongside automated integration of third-party AI services sourced from the decentralized AI marketplace – SingularityNET – a platform designed to combine key components to facilitate an accessible network of AI services.
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