AI Samurai: The artificially intelligent, armored samurai that will answer all your questions

Are you hosting a large event with lots of guests? Maybe it’s time to call in AI Samurai to help with crowd control.

Artificial intelligence is one of those hot issues that sparks a lot of debate but is ultimately kind of amorphous. Even defining just what, exactly, AI is can be a frustrating process, let alone actually creating it! Still, AI Samurai’s primary abilities, which include speech, voice recognition, and facial recognition, are definitely things that most people think about when they hear of artificial intelligence, so by that metric, he passes with flying colors!

“Wait, what is AI Samurai,” you ask? This is AI Samurai in the video below.

Putting samurai armor (and matching helmet) on a mannequin is an oddly effective way of creating something that looks life-like. His voice is obviously robotic, but in a way that almost reminds you of Arnold Schwarzenegger in "The Terminator" — if Arnie had developed a nasty sore throat. But, perhaps most importantly, the AI Samurai actually seems capable of having a conversation with people. He’ll even give you recommendations for articles to read, just like he’s your Facebook friend. AI Samurai will also tell you which famous samurai you are — so there’s your Facebook and Buzzfeed quiz replacement all in one snazzy package.

All joking aside, AI Samurai does look pretty awesome. He doesn’t have a sword, sadly, though that was by design. On the other hand, the chatty robotic warrior does have a nifty gunbai, a type of war fan used to communicate orders to soldiers, so he’s not totally defenseless.

But the purpose of the warrior isn’t battle anyway — as asserted in the video released by Nextremer, the company that developed AI Samurai, the robot is on a “quest for an A.I. solution.” Part of that quest involves traveling the world! He’ll be at SXSW Interactive 2016 in March next year, and will apparently embark on a world tour after that, though no other stops have been listed yet. This tour isn’t just for showing off; his creators want to test his abilities in a variety of situations and see how he handles real communication.

Ultimately, the goal is for AI Samurai to be able to help people at international events, providing guidance and recommendations. But with his facial and speech recognition abilities, we can’t help wondering if giving him armor was a good idea. Are we sure Nextremer isn’t just how robots from the future spell Cyberdyne?!

Sources: Japaaan, AI-Samurai, YouTube/Nextremer Official

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