[electronic beeping]
[static fizzling]
[electronic music playing]
[female narrator] In this 1940s movie,
Roll-Oh the robot butler caters to a housewife's every whim.
Roll-Oh, answer the door.
Yes, ma'am.
Roll-Oh get.
[narrator] Her helpful chrome-plated companion
seems a dream come true.
But not everyone likes the idea of a mechanical manservant.
In 1940, a robot butler is only a daydream.
But since then, we have made robots a vital part of our lives.
In 2020, we share Earth with an estimated 9 million robots.
About 3 million work in factories.
But they're also out on American roads, in the form of self-driving cars.
And yet the more we rely on robots,
the more we worry about being replaced.
Over 70% of Americans are concerned
that humans will lose their jobs to robots.
In one Chinese province, 2 million workers were replaced by robots in just two years.
Robots are even in our hospitals.
About 5,000 da Vinci surgical arms operate on patients around the world...
even though 69% of Americans are uncomfortable with robot surgeons.
As robots get smarter, faster, stronger, they improve our lives.
But will they make humanity redundant?
Popular culture likes to portray robots as either helpful assistants
or ruthless killers.
A robot is a machine that automatically performs complicated tasks.
The term first pops up in 1920 in the dystopian Czech play R.U.R.,
where assembly lines of workers are replaced and eventually exterminated
by more efficient humanoid machines.
It doesn't take long for robots to step out of the realm of fiction.
Fire!
I am Electro.
Mightiest of all robots.
If you use me well...
I can be your slave.
[narrator] In 1939, Electro causes a sensation
at the World's Fair in New York.
He's just a steel skeleton of gears with a motor wrapped in aluminum.
Still, he feeds the public's growing fascination with robots.
Most robot stories at the time are Frankenstein tales,
where evil robots destroy their masters.
So, in 1950, iconic sci-fi writer Isaac Asimov
sets out a moral code for them,
one that will influence how we think about robots for decades to come.
[Asimov] The first law,
a robot may not harm a human being.
Number two, a robot must obey orders given it by qualified personnel,
unless those orders violate rule number one.
Rule number three, a robot must protect its own existence,
unless that violates rules one or two.
[narrator] Asimov's laws are fictional,
but they inspire real-world engineers to create the first truly helpful robot.
It can pour a whiskey, but it's more than a tin butler.
[fanfare playing]
[man] A robot for industry.
And this is it. Unimate, a machine that can reach out to seven feet
and perform a multitude of tasks, in a factory or laboratory,
as skillfully as a man but without getting tired.
[surf rock music playing]
[narrator] Faced with America's growing demand for more automobiles,
in 1961, General Motors jumps on the potential of this new robot arm...
[mechanical whirring]
...putting Unimates to work on the assembly line.
Soon, the efficient robots are crowding factory floors
all around the world.
In 1966, Nokia first manufactures robotic arms
for Scandinavia and Eastern Europe.
Three years later, Kawasaki makes them for the Asian market.
Europe soon follows.
BMW, Mercedes-Benz, British Leyland and Fiat
all put them to work in their factories.
But Japan really embraces the new technology.
By 1981, 6,000 robots are working in car factories across Japan,
compared to a mere 370 in the UK.
Because of this,
in the '80s, the British auto industry finds itself lagging far behind,
unable to compete with the flood of cheaper-to-make Japanese imports.
I think the lesson for us is that, unless we get into the latest equipment,
that we might lose the capacity to make certain things altogether.
So we must keep up.
[narrator] Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher
is fascinated by Japanese robots,
who work the line 24-7
without unionizing or going on strike.
But with unemployment in the UK hovering at 10%...
many workers see the robots as a threat to their livelihoods.
[man 1] All those in favor of that resolution, would you please show?
[man 2] The workforce could not be convinced
that only by modernizing and investing could a genuine future be secured.
[narrator] But by 1983, the writing is on the wall.
Unimation opens a factory in the UK.
Despite workers' fears,
the robots actually do make the British automotive industry more competitive,
creating more jobs.
But these factory-floor robots are still largely blind, deaf and dumb,
best suited to repetitive tasks on the assembly line.
If robots are going to help humans with more complicated work,
they'll need to start thinking for themselves.
They'll need some sort of artificial intelligence.
AI is software that can write itself,
allowing computers to learn from data gathered in their environment.
Since the 1960s,
researchers have been exploring the idea of a robot guided by AI software,
who can think for itself,
like the politely disobedient HAL 9000
from Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey.
This dream first takes shape at the Stanford Research Institute.
[man] At SRI, we are experimenting with a mobile robot.
We call him Shakey.
[narrator] Shakey's camera and bump sensors
send signals to its computer brain over in the next room...
allowing the robot to deal with unpredictable circumstances.
[man] Our gremlin, Charlie, symbolizes an agent of change unknown to Shakey.
Shakey's sensors tell him that the box has slipped off the push bar.
But his cat whiskers tell him where the box is
so he can get behind it and resume pushing.
[narrator] It's all still a bit shaky,
but the robot's program is a milestone in artificial intelligence,
a platform on which future, more complex algorithms will be built.
By the 1990s, computers become far more powerful, and AI gets smarter.
IBM develops Deep Blue, a supercomputer, teaching it to play chess.
[Western movie music playing]
In 1997, Deep Blue challenges grand master Garry Kasparov,
the Michael Jordan of chess.
[man] He's shaking his head as if something disastrous has happened.
Kasparov, after the move C4, has resigned!
[narrator] It's a landmark moment.
A human has been out-thought by a computer.
And those computers are getting smarter by the minute...
because the amount of transistors being squeezed onto microchips
roughly doubles every two years...
exponentially increasing their speed and capacity.
Think of it this way.
Imagine a car traveling at five miles per hour
that doubles its speed every minute.
It's traveling at ten miles per hour after one minute.
At 40 miles per hour after three minutes.
But after 27 minutes,
it's traveling at 671,088,640 miles per hour.
Just a fraction faster than the speed of light.
Three minutes at that speed would get it to Mars.
That is the pace at which computing power starts growing
throughout the '80s and '90s.
By the late '90s, computing power is compact enough
that artificial intelligence programs can be installed in robots.
It's a huge development.
Robots now have decision-making abilities
and can take on more complicated tasks too dangerous for humans.
On July 4th, 1997,
in one giant leap for robot-kind,
self-driving rover Sojourner goes where no human has gone before.
Mars.
[cheering]
With the aid of AI, Sojourner navigates
across the rocky Martian terrain for three months,
taking samples and sending back 550 photos.
Similar AI-driven rovers prove indispensable on Earth.
Defusing bombs in war zones.
Saving lives from Kosovo to Afghanistan.
-[shouting] -[explosion]
AI also helps flying vehicles, such as drones,
navigate long distances,
allowing them to react to any changing environment.
In Rwanda, where road infrastructure is limited,
drones deliver blood banks to hard-to-reach places.
[shouts]
Now, with a drone,
blood is obtained on time,
so that we can save people's lives without any delay.
[narrator] While some drones save lives,
others do the opposite.
On October 7th, 2001, just after the 9/11 attacks,
the American military uses a missile-carrying Predator drone
against a Taliban commander in Afghanistan,
debuting a new form of robot warfare.
But while some robots begin acting as assassins,
others become valued companions,
especially in Japan.
It's an attitude deeply rooted in Japanese religion.
According to the ancient Shinto teachings,
man-made objects can contain human spirits...
which helps explain why Japanese technicians have been using AI
to develop friendlier, more responsive robots.
Hello, my name is Asimo,
Honda's humanoid robot.
[narrator] Robots like Asimo, first developed by Honda in 2000,
are designed to help humans tackle the loneliness of modern life.
In 2013,
Toyota's humanoid robot, Kirobo,
is launched up to the International Space Station
to keep his astronaut friend company.
They spend 18 months in orbit together and share everything.
[in Japanese] My only regret is that I will be leaving you alone here.
I'll be all right. I'm a robot.
[narrator] Despite having AI, robots like Kirobo
don't have feelings the way robots in movies do.
But they can teach humans to better understand emotions.
Robots can help children with autism,
teaching them how to recognize and express emotional responses.
[woman] Is he happy, sad, angry or scared?
[narrator] Humans all over the world
are increasingly turning to intelligent robots for emotional support.
Japan leads the way, with over 300,000 companion robots,
twenty times more than in the UK.
[gong sounds]
Robots are helping to care for the elderly.
[electronic buzzing]
Teaching and playing with children.
[electronic buzzing]
-[children cheer] -And filling in for absent parents.
-Yay! -[narrator] Automated companions
are also replacing the need for human spouses.
[electronic beeps, whistle]
Since 2016, over 3,700 men in Japan
have chosen to shun human bonds
and instead have married robotic holograms.
New synthetic materials
start allowing designers to create extraordinarily lifelike robots
that use AI to engage in conversation.
But others stay focused on more practical uses for intelligent robots.
In November 2005, 23 cars line up in the Mojave Desert
for a 132-mile race.
[siren blaring]
Not one of them has a driver.
[siren blaring]
Stanley, Stanford Racing Team's VW, takes first place.
[man] It's the beginning of the car that drives itself.
It's inevitable to me
that, 50 years from now, cars will drive themselves.
Today, we lose 43,000 people on American highways in traffic accidents,
mostly because of human error.
[narrator] Sebastian Thrun goes on to work for Google,
turning the mundane family car into a robot.
Soon, Tesla and Uber start pouring millions
into developing self-driving cars,
competing for their share of the budding market.
In December 2018, Google's Waymo
cautiously rolls out its self-driving taxi service.
People are now paying for robot rides.
It's a watershed moment.
For the first time,
humans are actually putting their lives in the hands of robots on the road.
So how do these cars work?
LIDAR gives the vehicle a 360-degree view.
It also sees the world in 3D, day or night.
Radar and ultrasonic sensors tell the car how far away other vehicles are
and how fast they're going.
Cameras read traffic lights and road signs.
A computer analyzes all the data and makes split-second decisions.
[alarm beeping]
The AI programs controlling these cars need millions of driving hours to train.
They aren't perfect...
but robot cars may end up being better at driving humans
than humans are at driving themselves.
By 2030,
there will likely be some 20 million autonomous vehicles in operation
in the US alone.
The roads may be safer,
but for the 3.5 million American truckers, driverless vehicles spell trouble.
Their jobs are in jeopardy.
And they're not the only ones.
AI automation is coming to Wall Street.
The number of people working in finance around the world
is expected to drop by up to 1.7 million over the next ten years.
Traditional traders are no match for AI,
capable of analyzing vast amounts of data.
The robots seem to be coming for everyone's jobs.
-[woman] Yay! -This is crazy, but all right.
[narrator] And as they become better at navigating our world,
the prospect of putting advanced intelligence programs inside them
seems more and more unsettling.
After all, an increasing number of robots carry weapons.
In 2018, a former employee
reveals that the US military is developing AI software to pilot their drones...
allowing them to identify targets on their own, faster.
The US Navy has already announced the development of a robot warship,
designed to cruise for months without a crew,
hunting enemy submarines.
The US Army has tested self-driving tanks.
But such autonomous killing machines
may not be able to differentiate between subtle human behaviors...
putting people at grave risk.
[electronic beeping]
For now, robots and humans are working side by side.
Yet technologists do seem to be in a race to create robots that can surpass us,
even at the very things that make us uniquely human.
How much everyday human function do we want to outsource to robots?
And what happens when the AI controlling our robots
begins to outsmart us?
This hypothetical tipping point is known as "the singularity."
If we can make an AI that can make smarter and smarter AIs, it can make...
all sorts of inventions beyond humanity's wildest dreams.
[narrator] Such concepts may seem far-fetched,
but so were robot butlers in 1940.
When AI does outsmart us and robots take on more human function,
will we lose our purpose?
How will we cope with this new world order?
And who will be in control?
[electronic music playing]