Creator of theoriginal PlayStation, Ken Kutaragi, has moved on from the world of video games and is now making complex robotics instead. The purpose of these robots varies widely, but Kutaragi focuses on making products that will help humanity, especially in times of need like this ongoing pandemic.
Kutaragi was the CEO of Sony at the time of the originalPlayStation’s release, but left the company in 2007 one year after the PS3 hit shelves. Obviously, Sony has continued to shine in the years since, and the PS5 is just a month away, but Kutaragi went on to build a name for himself in other ways.
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Ascent Robotics was founded in 2016 with the express goal of working towards a more autonomous future. Though this information is nothing new, Kutaragi recently took part in an interview with Bloomberg where he elaborated on what he and his company are doing in thefield of artificial intelligence.
In the midst of theCOVID-19 pandemic, Kutaragi and Ascent Robotics feel that robots working alongside humans is the next logical step for labor. In his vision, there’d be no need for face to face interaction of humans to complete transactions, as working robots would be able to handle most of those situations. There has long been debate about the ethics and economic effects of having a robotic workforce eventually replace humans in the workplace, but Kutaragi and Ascent Robotics feel strongly that it’s time to take the next step towards that scenario.
Ascent Robotics is also focused heavily oncreating self driving vehicles, a technology that it feels would greatly benefit humanity as a whole. Both this field and artificial intelligence have had difficulty breaking through to the forefront, but Kutaragi believes his experience with the PlayStation and problem solving in general will help him accomplish this monumental task. His dedication to this dream goes beyond money or nationalism, as Ascent Robotics hires engineers from all across the globe. What’s more, Kutaragi has completely forgone a salary in an effort to help the company stay afloat as it continues its expensive research.
It remains to be seen how successful Ascent Robotics will be in the near future, but Kutaragi informed Bloomberg that it intends to have aworking prototype of a robotthat can do physical labor alongside humans in factories by 2021. Though it would likely be expensive at first, this kind of technology would shake things up in the business world drastically.
