Disney made a smarter robot, kids like the dumb one

Disney Research is at it again. The research arm of the company responsible for the "most magical place on Earth" is now exploring how to fine-tune interactive robots to give children the best possible experience. In a paper titled "Persistent Memory in Repeated Child-Robot Conversations," researchers show how children reacted to different levels of interactivity based on how well a robot recalled previous interactions with a child.

The results of the study are not completely intuitive. It turns out that it is possible for robots to be too lifelike. More accurately, when robots referred back to previous events, the interactions became too complex for younger children. Older children, on the other hand, appreciated the callback.

The study used different storytelling scenarios to gauge the responses of children of different ages. The control robot did not offer any persistent memory, and this is the robot that had the best responses from younger children. PIPER, Disney's robot, had two different "persistence conditions" based on complexity. The first persistence condition sticks to a specific topic flow but injects callbacks to earlier interactions. The pro-active persistence condition goes further by offering its own feelings and opinions. This P+ condition resulted in the biggest likability rating among older children.

The results from Disney are good news for companies focusing on more basic educational robots, which is big business in China. These robots tend to be geared toward teaching younger children, so more complex robots might not be beneficial for this purpose. For older children, though, robotics companies might want to invest in some artificial intelligence. Amazon's Alexa is a popular choice.