Sooo… the inimitable Russell Brand posted a video a few weeks ago saying some amusing but largeuly inaccurate and misleading things about the Grace humanoid eldercare robot we’re making in our Awakening Health project (http://awakening.health).

Russell’s video is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDD7M1OWBDg.

I recorded this video as a sort of response, to set the record straight a bit and explain why Russell is wrong about Grace and what is the actual nature of the Awakening Health project and what are the motivations behind it!

The three main points I make in the video (but with more color and detail, so do watch the video if you’re interested!!) are:

1) Grace is there to help nurses and nursing assistants not replace or obsolete them. When she becomes an AGI she still won’t obsolete the need for human connection and human care. Elderly folks need extra help and attention right now and Grace can help. My grandfather spent the last 5 years or so of his life in an eldercare facility; it was a pretty good one, but he was still lonely and confused a lot of the time and certainly could have benefited greatly from a robot like Grace.

2) Awakening Health is a JV of Hanson Robotics and: SingularityNET (http://singularitynet.io), whose purpose is to democratize & decentralize AI. It’s all about data sovereignty and putting the control over the AI in the hands of the humans who are training and using the AI. Not about centralized tech oppression of the elderly or anyone else as Russell alludes. Actually I think I see very closely eye to eye w/ Russell Brand on the dangers of Big Tech and Big Government, though I probably more clearly see the path to a solution than he does (hint: it has to do with blockchain-meets-beneficial-AGI).