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THE LAB — When it came to showing us wildly inappropriate movies for our ages, my parents were the best. What I mean by that is I should not have been watching many of these films at such a young age, but I loved it. I saw movies of which my friends were banned from even uttering the title. This was a double-edged sword, however, while I felt like a pretty cool kindergartener, I also have some fears as an adult that aren't based in reality.
For example, I am wary of skyscrapers because I don't want to get caught in the middle of a hostage situation with some greedy Germans. I'm also afraid of the jungle and what alien hunters may be hiding in there and I most certainly don't trust robots. Because according to me, it's only a matter of time before they start rebelling against humans and bring about judgment day. That is precisely why this video scared me and then put me at ease.
This is a product demo of Color Splash, an A.I. robot built to paint your walls. At first, the robot comes in and nearly knocks down the door. You may have seen that as a mistake, but I saw it as solidifying its dominance. Then it quickly and precisely starts moving around the room and measuring the wall.
My mind started to race, as I imagined it going about the same process but instead of measuring a wall it was scanning to see if the object in front of it had human DNA and if it did to terminate.
As my palms got sweaty and my mind raced, the robot finally started painting and my fears were quelled as the machine seemed to lose its microchip mind and perform its best impression of Jackson Pollack. Then it spun in circles and I started to laugh.
I think professional painters don't need to worry about their jobs quite yet. If a robot comes to my door hoping to paint my house, I just need to worry about the appearance of my interior and not my life.
