From Ant-Man to giant robot battles, Face the Mecha-future on the CraveCast, Ep. 15

[MUSIC] Welcome to the CraveCast. I'm Erick Mack and today I'm here live in the Mother Ship at the CNET studios in San Francisco and I'm joined by the other human appendages that make up the veritable voltron that is the CraveCast. Bonnie Burton, Kelsey Adams, Jeff Sparkman here in the studio with Stephen Beecham behind the controls, and last but not limey, all the way from the UK via Skype in his Creative Cast debut, it's Rich Trenthome. Yay. Hey everybody. Welcome. Hello from London. On that monitor, I feel a little bit like, do you guys watch Red Dwarf? Yeah. [LAUGH] Perfect hologram, right, dudes? [LAUGH] I get dibs on being Cat. Okay, cool. What time is it over there, Rich, because we still don't do the math on that. It's pub time, if I'm honest. But, [CROSSTALK] It is here too. Yeah, always. Eight o'clock at night. Well, feel free to drink up. Talking about beer and talking about soccer, but now I thought I'd be here with you guys and that's [INAUDIBLE]. Football as we call it. And if you want to join in on the conversation, as always, you can Tweet us @crave. And we're also live. We've got chat rooms live on ustream. [INAUDIBLE] Live stream, livestream.com/feenet. You'll find the [INAUDIBLE] right there and also we're monitoring the YouTube chat as well. So, we're going to be talking about robots today. There's a whole lot going on in the robot world. We've been following the development of what will surely be the biggest competition on tap for 2016, not the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro But the upcoming battle, the world's first full sized piloted fighting robots. But before that, before we get out of the bubble and what else is new in the weird side of the world of robotics, Rich actually has a special report for us. Rich, you are among the lucky few that have had the chance to see Antman, before it officially debuts later this week. You got a no-spoilers review for us? That's right. Yeah. Trying not to give any spoilers is probably particularly important with Antman because I think nobody really knew what to expect. IT relies on kind of the shock of it actually being really good. [LAUGH] It is really good. I was in the previous screening-it was all over the press-and everyone was kind of sitting around going, 'no one knows if this is going to be the best thing ever or the worst,' and it turned out it was actually really, really good. So I can't give too much away. But if you're a confirmed nerd, which I imagine most of our viewers are, it's working on Lots of different levels. The main thing I found is that it's fun, it's kinda funny, it's kinda a family adventure. It's easily the funniest movie I've seen in the cinema for a long time. But then you also got these other little levels going on as well. There's all the Marvel continuity that's in there, there's a few references in there that made a few people in the theater just lose their minds. There's a couple of references if you look out for, then if you're a big Marvel fan you'll be rewarded for that. The other thing as well is that it was originally developed for about 10 years by Edgar Wright, and he left right at the last minute. So, if you're a big Edgar Wright fan, I'm a huge fan of Edgar Wright from Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, Spaced, all that kind of thing. You're kind of watching it, thinking is that Edgar Wright? Is that Edgar Wright? Did he put that in? Now it's really interesting cuz his DNA is all over it visually and stylistically and in the jokes and everything. [LAUGH] But he wasn't actually directing it, someone else directed it. So it's kind of interesting looking. Did they put that in afterwards? Is that something he put in? That was kind of fun. So, yeah, it's actually brilliant and it stays kind of on the right side of silly. Could have been really, really silly, but it's really, really well done. It's really kind of well crafted. Really detailed and just really fun, really fun, fun movie. Definitely. Paul Rudd as a super hero. Were you buying it? Yeah it was. I mean it's. The thing about Antman it kind of has some technology that kind of makes him Antman. It's really a kind of realistic technology thing. Its not quite Batman Begins [INAUDIBLE] but it's a very simple thing. If you put on the suit. You can shrink down to different sizes. So anybody can be Ant-Man. So it kinda takes it down to that, with great power comes great responsibility theme that runs through all superhero stuff. It comes with Spider-Man. And Paul Rudd kind of, it's almost like anybody could be plugged in and you see what they do with him. And he stays just on the right side of knowing. He's quite sardonic. He's quite dry in it. And he's kind of not quite winking at the camera, but you know he's in on the joke. And it works really well. [CROSSTALK] It's really good. It's very funny. The character's not actually the greatest guy to begin with. Is that right? Yeah, that's right. Yeah, exactly. As fans of the comics will know, he starts as a thief. And he's recruited. He's actually the second Ant-Man. He's recruited by the first Ant-Man, who's played by Michael Douglas. And so, yeah, he comes in and then they have to kind of train him to be the new Antman. And he is like this normal guy. He's this normal kind of guy who comes into the superhero universe. He doesn't have any powers. He's given this suit and his reaction is very similar to ours. which is like, what the heck is this? Yeah, I think it kind of works. It pulls everything, stays on the right side of the [UNKNOWN], it's really funny. There's a few things that are wrong with it, Sometimes with the continuity stuff it feels like, you know when there's a big crossover thing happening in Marvel comics or in DC or whatever and you're reading a book and you know that there's something important happened in another book that I haven't bought>>Oh, yeah>>do I And so theres a few of things, continuity references. Theres a cameo from an Avenger in this. And again, I know it's work, pretty much but there is a cameo from an Avenger and if you are not that familiar with it. I mean, if you are familiar with it, there were people going nuts but if you are not familiar with it, then it might be a little bit alienating. It stands to read well. It's really good. That's a cool thing too about Marvel is that we're going to start getting all these crossovers and since Marvel and Star Wars are owned by Disney, I'm just waiting for the Ant Man/R2D2 team-up. [LAUGH] I would love to see that or I would, I don't know. I'm all about crossing the streams when it comes to Any kind of geek franchise and geek stuff. But I'm excited for AntMan. I'm excited for AntMan for not AntMan, but there's one character. And I don't want you to spoil it cuz I haven't seen it yet, but I'm just gonna put that out there. I really hope the Wasp is in there, because she created the Avengers. I mean, in the comics she did. And in the comics she is a very fundamental character and she was with the first Tank Prim so she was with the first Ant Man who started the Ant Man costume and everything. And she is such a pivotal female character in Marvel comics. That I will nerd rage at the theatre if she's not in it. So, don't tell me Okay. But, if there's going to be violence, let me know ahead of time so I can get a lawyer. [LAUGH] That's just me. I mean, here's the thing. When we all love comics so much, and then the movie comes out and we all want our favorite character in a movie; same thing with Star Wars, same thing with any franchise, really. and you don't have it. Especially us ladies who like female characters and we are like that female character was super duper pivotal. I hope she is not just going to be some girlfriend on the side. She better be represented, I don't know. <<that is="" what="" you="" said="" actuallly.="" that="" probably="" the="" biggest="" failing="" of="" <="" div=""></that> [LAUGH] I was laughing out loud the whole time. And then I came out afterwards, and I was like, wait a minute, there were no women in that movie. Yeah. Then, Evangeline Lilly is Hope van Dyne, who is the daughter of [CROSSTALK]. Oh, I know. All right, so yeah. And Hope has her own thing too, but it's like the Wasp is like so pivotal in the Ant Man series Maybe she's so awesome, they're saving her for her own Netflix series. That's how I lie to myself as a Marvel fan. If I don't have a character that shows up in a movie I like, I'm like, oh she'll show up on her own like Jessica Jones or Yeah. Jessica Jones or, Actually well Jessica Jones [LAUGH] Stick around till the end, I'll say that much. Okay cool. There better not be another Howard the Duck cameo is there? [LAUGH] Didn't you say there are two stingers Rich, like one half way through and one at the end. That's not a spoiler is it? We all wanted to know, right That was dumb, right? No, but that was a pun, right? [LAUGH] The screening that I was at with these people, they got up as soon as the credits started to roll. Everybody got up and starts to leave, and got their coats and everything. What? There were a bunch of people sat there like what are you doing? Have you never [INAUDIBLE] [CROSSTALK] You fool! Have you never seen a movie? That's what that's like. I feel like we've been trained. When I worked at Lucasfilm, we were never allowed to leave when the credits rolled. Because those were all out coworkers that were getting listed. So we had to stay and do the polite clap or just woo for people we really liked in the office. So it was always an ego. So I've been trained. So ever since then I know there's something coming. Especially the Muppets Movie. They do the blooper reel at the end. And you're like, I am not- With Jackie Chan. I am not missing blooper reels with Muppets and Jackie Chan. That's never gonna happen. So I've been well trained to stay to the very end. And Ferris Bueller did that to us. The very end And to Ferris Bueller, he stole his shower. It's all his fault, yeah. Tell him to go home, the movie's done. So it's all his fault. It's all Ferris Bueller's fault. Bueller. [LAUGH] So, Rich, the final verdict, we should all plan to see this next week? Wait for Netflix? What do you say? I say go. Actually speaking of which go and see it in the theaters because I keep saying cinema but I should say theaters. It's got one of the best use of 3Ds I've ever seen in that it's not just tacked on at the end. It actually is throughout the story. I interviewed Edgar Rice a couple years ago. And he was talking. We talked a bit about 3D, and he was saying about how it works with part of the story where it's like, in Avatar, it's all about having an out of body experience. When you've got a character that goes into another body, another world, and the 3D helps you kind of go into that world with them. And that's kind of what Ant Man does, it's similar to Tron Legacy, which is not a great movie, but it does that instant, kind of Wizard of Oz thing. Where the real world is 2D, but then inside the computer is 3D. Ant Man kind of does that similar sort of thing where the 3D is really really well used with the kind of size changing thing. So, the first time he shrinks down Bath, in a bathtub. And just kind of a tidal wave of water coming towards him. And it's just like a 3D is just really really well done, so yeah, see it in theaters in 3D if you can. How did you bury that lead. Paul Red in a bath? [LAUGH] That should have been at the beginning of your review, I mean come on. That you're right, yeah. I'm just saying, for the ladies. [LAUGH] For the record, Rich, you can tell us to see it at the cinema. You can't tell us to schedule it, however. [LAUGH] [LAUGH] We fought one revolutionary war over that, and we don't want another one. [LAUGH] I thought we had a war over memo and not memo. Is that one too? I don't know. Oh man. We're horrible Americans, sorry.. [LAUGH] Aren't you glad that we didn't stay with your country? [LAUGH] No that's good, so put on your trousers, get in the lift, and go to the cinema- [LAUGH] No snogging, no snogging though- No snogging. All right, well thank you very much, Rich. Stick around to talk robots with us, cuz we were kicking around topics for the show. And then we just covered tons of robot stuff over the past few months we've noticed. Probably the most exciting thing for me is the giant robot duel that I mentioned earlier The MegaBots company out of the Boston area they've got their new Mk II. We're talking kind of piloted robots. The Mk II actually takes two people to pilot it. It's like a miniature version of the Pacific Rim thing. But by miniature it's still almost two stories tall. Are you talking RC remote? Is that how they? No, they're inside it. Oh, so it's like a mecca. Yeah, it is like a mecca. Okay. How can they possibly do all that? I mean the liability. That's waiver. That's what waivers are for. Yeah. So this is the American one, this is the mark two. Hence the flag. [LAUGH] Yeah, just in case you didn't know we're American, we have to wear flags on our backs. We're about subtlety. We're subtle. Don't let those touch the ground. You have to burn the flags! We are the b in subtle. [LAUGH] There's a lot of tongue-in-cheek action in this too. There's the Japanese. I was kind of hoping to see live ammunition. You know. Oh my god, we are so doomed. Look at the Japanese. Well it shoots cannon ball sized paint balls. Ohhh. Oh damn. Paint balls are actually pretty dangerous. Those would leave a mark. Wait so the silver one is the Japanese one? They reference the Kuratas, which is the Japanese one. Okay. And that's actually been around for a couple years. Yeah, I've seen it. I've seen it in stores and stuff. Oh, god. Sunglasses means we're gonna lose. [LAUGH] So this came out a couple weeks ago. Megabot's challenging Suidobashi Industry that makes the Kuratas out of Japan. And pretty quickly they accepted the challenge which we're hoping will be sometime next year. This is the response video from Japan. See, if they pretty quickly respond, that means they know they're gonna beat us. Yeah. Were we doubting? I don't think we were doubting. [LAUGH] Oh, game on. [FOREIGN] [LAUGH] [FOREIGN] [LAUGH] [MUSIC] Yeah, this is how wars start. [FOREIGN] [FOREIGN] He's not wrong. [FOREIGN] [LAUGH] [LAUGH] Am I allowed to defect before this happens? [LAUGH] There's no Canadian team. Is there, can I, will Japanese adopt me, can Japan adopt me, because. Oh. I'm not un-American, I'm just saying when it comes to giant robots and we challenge them out of nowhere. I know who to bet on. And they easily accept going, huh. Yeah, okay Americans. So they accepted with a caveat, which is in addition to the paint ball gun, they wanted to add the hand to hand combat. No. So I think they got the close game, they got a better aim on the close game then we do. But it really it is, it's like the sweet spot of Japanese, you know tech culture, and I guess American warrior gun culture. So it sounds less fun if you put it like that. Yeah, why do you say it like that, you're trying to scare us. There's like a whole group of guys in Montana who are like, yeah, let's do this. Well, it could unite the country, right? That's how all wars work. When the robots hug it out afterwards, it's going to be beautiful. Well, that's like a Segway about robots hugging it out. Oh the wedding, yes. Go on. Okay. Let's move on. Yeah. 'cause now I'm scared. Challenge accepted. Can we just talk about love for a minute? We'll be nationalistic later. Yeah, I'm just worried. So there were two robots that got married in Japan right before ComicCon. Which I think that was very sweet. But it was a humanoid robot based off of a Japanese pop star I can't remember her name. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The link I linked to a longer article about the woman being pushed along. That's not a human who doesn't want to get married, getting pushed on the stage that's a humanoid robot and then obviously the guy in red is clearly a robot, that's the groom and pepper officiated it and look at her she looks, look how shifty she is, she can't leave. This is runaway bride nightmare, cuz she cannot run off. Wow, that is scary. That's kissing, that's the kissing happening, yeah they even need human help. [LAUGH] These are not the robots we'll be fighting in that Mecca War by the way, or else we would totally win. Then they have these robots, look at the robots, those are clearly people in robot costumes, but they're back up dancers. To this guy. Don't ruin the illusion for me. The buffet looks amazing, it's like everything fried. Look at that. Look at that dance. I bet you the robots aren't even going to eat most of that. No, that's the best part about going to a robot wedding, is you get all the food. So they push her off, because, you know She doesn't want to be on stage the whole time. They push him off. So they're not the best robots. I mean, we're not talking replicants here. And if you were human, you wanted to go to this, I guess it was like $100 a plate kind of meal, which is actually cheap for a wedding, when you think about all that. Yeah. I don't know how legal it is. [LAUGH] I'm wearing my robot pride sweater right now. I'm all for robot on robot marriage. I've married R2D2. It's true. And a ceremony for [UNKNOWN]. Was there a prenup? [LAUGH]. Yeah. Well the prenup was we have an open source marriage. He gets to see other robots. I get to see other humans. Darth Maul was the officiant so I. I don't know how legal it was [LAUGH] and, I mean I don't know what church you represent but he might be unitarian now that I think about it. But Darth Vader was best man and Adrian Curry who won American's Next Top Model was my bridesmaid. Which is always good to have a super model as your bridesmaid if you're the bride, and you don't even bother wearing a real dress, so. [LAUGH] She could have gone as a Cosplay character there. Yeah, my step-mom I think she wrote, when I wrote it's complicated on my Facebook. She's like, you couldn't wear a dress? Like that was the big deal, not that I married a robot. [LAUGH] But in all honesty, robots marrying robots I think is very sweet But I do think we're not that far off, especially cuz we did that story on CNET about the real doll maker wanting to do real doll robots, and we have more and more helper robots that are starting to look humanoid. I honestly think that there's gonna be in our lifetime someone who wants to legally marry a robot. There's already people who want to marry the Eiffel Tower. Yeah, but I mean- And that's a crappy robot. But I mean not where it's like a scary TV show or movie but kind of like, a Blade Runner. Like Blade Runner. Cause I mean- If the movie, Her When he falls in love with his operating system? Yeah. I mean, right now we are sort of in the creepy stage of wanting to marry robots. I think eventually, I think with helper robots. As robots start looking more and more like us, to the point where they are replicants or they are like, xmachina? Xmachina. Right. Sorry. I was using, was that the British pronation? Umm. I was hoping one of you was gonna say it first. [LAUGH] Anyway, I wrote this story as a fun story. But the more and more I thought about it, the more I was like, I kinda hope in my lifetime I get to see actual humans and robots marrying each other. Cuz I think it's kind of sweet. And I don't think it's creepy, but that's just me maybe. That could be the premise of the revamp, small wonder show that will honor. Oh yeah. Nicki gets married to a guy. Here is the thing. We did a story about the new UK show, Humans. Which is about replicant type helper robots. That look very human and are gorgeous. I would totally date one. I feel like now this feels like a meeting. Where I'm suppose to say my first name and you all welcome me and this is a robots anonymous meeting. But anyways so that's why I wrote this story. It was fun and also that wedding reception looked fabulous. I would love to have a wedding with backup dancers with robots. Who wouldn't? Oh, and Pepper, who officiated [UNKNOWN], right? Pepper officiated, yeah. So our colleague, Michelle Starr, also last month, covered the, Pepper hit the market in Japan and apparently sold out within a minute. Yeah. Dang. And these are not cheap. No. These go for $1,600 apiece. They look so friendly. How can I help you? Like Hey Bonnie, can I make you a Martini? Let's do your laundry. Now you're married. Would you like me to walk the dog? I'll do your taxes. Your mommy is calling again. She wants to know if you're seeing anyone. Shall I tell her my name is Benedict Cumberbatch. You know whats funny is they'll bring...I didn't see pepper but there is a lot of pepper clones. They'll bring the CES you know they'll do demonstrations, draw a big crowd on the show floor. Which, that's how I've kind of become fascinated by why, what's the difference between Japan and us here. I mean there is just a complete acceptance of this- you know like robots as pets and robots as caretakers and like companions for older people. Yeah, when I wrote that story a few months ago about the robot dogs that they're no longer fixing and so they have full on robot dog funerals. Legit funerals, people are Super upset when the robot dogs can't be fixed. Because no one is making replacement parts any more. Exactly, yeah. And so there's only a few technicians that can. I mean I guess you could do 3D printing parts but I think they're just so specific it's just really hard to do that. And I think that culture is so embedded in robotics as companions. I mean, think of Astro Boy. That cartoon has been going on for ages. That's the exact plot to the movie Robots. Yeah. When was it, like 2005 or something. Yeah. Yeah. Where they stopped making parts in this giant corporation. Yeah. >.Wants everyone to upgrade, you know. I mean AI, Spielberg's AI movie came out a long time ago but that kind of mentality for robots has always been part of Japanese culture. Whereas with us, I feel like we're been sort of uncanny valley. Tension where we're like, "We don't want replace -" like we instantly think they're going to pod-people us. They're going to replace us with robots, and we get all scared our jobs are going to be gone. Whereas Japanese are like, "Yea! More people to help." Do you guys remember those dinosaurs? The dinosaurs? Yeah. They're sort of toy robots, you can interact with them Eric- Yeah. Emotionally, you can pet them, you can feed them, torture them. but please don't. Somebody actually did a study where they let everybody play with these for a while and then told them that they had to torture them or kill them. Everyone refused and then she finally got one guy to kill one by saying if you didn't they would kill Kill all of them. Oh, wow. [LAUGH] [CROSSTALK] That is dark. That is super dark. I mean it's a- [LAUGH] The fact that this experiment exists says interesting things. But yeah, I don't find it that surprising, because if we get positive feelings from playing with these robots, then it goes without saying that we will have negative feelings from hurting them, cuz that [CROSSTALK] It's like the Stanford [INAUDIBLE] Experiment. It's like a [INAUDIBLE] prison. I mean, here's the thing, too. They did a. I know that there was a report a ways back about how soldiers would bond with the robotic bomb sniffers. Really? Yeah. And so anytime helper robots or any kind of robots that put their life In front of humans get broken and the humans are like, oh my god we have to fix this, this is not just about my life it's about that robot. I know I'm sounding crazy, but it really was- No, that's a true phenomenon. That kind of situation. Yeah, it's an actual phenomenon and it's interesting to look up and read more about that. But I do think it's interesting how these are happening more and more and more, where people are like Oh my God. This could be, this is our future where we're gonna have these robots helping us. Right. Or buying drugs for us. [LAUGH] Right. Sorry, I was just thinking Frank. [CROSSTALK] Rich, where do you think the U.K. is on the spectrum of robot acceptance? [LAUGH] [LAUGH] I'm not sure I would particularly want robot types wondering around my house or anything. But the robot hovers, robot vacuum cleaners. Oh yeah. I think it's interesting what we've had the last couple years of so. In the last couple of years we have had So many movies and TV shows about robots and AI. We've had Humans, that we already mentioned, that's on AMC at the moment, you asked. We've had Chappie and Ex Machina which mentioned, and. Atomic stuff. Even age of Ultron. There's all this stuff that it's kind of about AI turning against us. And it seems like culturally we're kind of movie makers who gets kind of ambivalent about all this stuff. I mean, I don't know, have you ever seen that movie Robot and Frank? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's a rare example of a robot In a, portrayed in a positive light. And that's heartbreaking, that movie. And that's exactly what it's about. It's about this robot that becomes a living thing that he kind of identifies with. So I could sort of see that. But the whole self-driving car thing, about how they've got these ethical problems where they have to decide, if they're careening out of control and they're in an accident, do they go that way and kill three people? Or do they go that way and kill one person? And. How can robots make that kind of decision? We must be a long way away from that. I find that quite scary. Yeah, and also, it's funny too because we've had robots in our pop culture forever. I mean, if you look at Tin Man, from Wizard of Oz, he is technically, I mean robot or cyborg is it just depends on what you actually think he was but still- He started human and then cut out his organs one by one. Cyborg. So yeah, I don't know, I feel like robots have been around for a long time, like short circuit was big robot movie. Series in the 80s. And that was definitely humanizing robots. And I personally, when I see a robot get injured, I flinch. I know it's just metal. I know it's not necessarily gonna bleed. It bleeds oil or maybe some sort of weird fluid. But I just don't know. For me, I quickly humanize anything with a face. So I am the perfect target for any robot war. That's a good policy, really. Yeah, it's like- Be nice to the thing with a face. [LAUGH] Be nice to things with faces, but there are robots like the RoboSimian that I reported about in the DARPA challenge that doesn't have a face. And it's called RoboSimian even though it looks like a spider. It has four instead of eight And they say it has apelike movement, that's why it's called RoboSimian and it's not a Planet of the Apes reference, though I wonder if eventually that will be our overlords. But I loved that video. I don't know if you guys have it cued up or not, and I'm probably going out of sequence but it opens doors. This is part of the DARPA challenge that. Robotics challenge. He did the right one cuz there's- Yep that's it. And it looks weird cuz it just looks like it's like riding around on his ****. But it does this weird like am or I'm sorry like spider-like maneuver even thought it's got four legs like I said. It's all elbows to s its kind of clumsy, but there was a scene in this video where it's driving a jeep. And I'm like I want this movie, I want to see this thing actually drive a jeep around and pick people up. Like I want Uber simian. I want that sort of thing because it looks so happy in the jeep, you'll see it eventually. But this kind of movement, they've made this robot specifically for rescue operations. So it's to get into places that humans can't or where it is too dangerous. Where this might be the robot you see during the giant earthquake we're supposed to have in San Francisco eventually. Or this may be something that goes out to space and rescues, like maybe an astronaut that, like, hurt himself or herself or perhaps, it's, you know, it could be adapted for underwater type of missions. NASA JPL created this A female roboticist, thank you very much, and she explains through this video like, why they built it the way they did, why they tested the way they did. And she brought up something very unique, too, about the DARPA Robotics Challenge, is they're given requirements about this obstacle course ahead of time. They're given a lot of these requirements. Mm hm.>> And she did, oh, there's the jeep. Oh my God, so you still, look how happy he is. Hey, guys. Hey, road trip. I just got my permit, let's go. [LAUGH] Hey, anyone want to go to Coachella? Yeah, look at him, he's so happy. I wanna get a Slurpee- He's like hey guys- Wait a minute- Don't worry I'll get the Slurpees. But anyways, they brought up the thing about DARPA challenge where a lot of the robotics People are making robots just to go through that obstacle course without a hitch, as opposed to maybe you should build robots for an actual purpose than winning this challenge. Like a multipurpose robot You know? Maybe not all robots need to climb stairs and do that sort of thing. Maybe they actually need to, have real world applications. It's gamer time. It is We see a challenge It's a big challenge to win too. There is funding. There is funding involved. Anytime there is funding Scientists. They'll do whatever they can to get that funny. But look how great. That is all elbows. It almost looks like a weird Sesame Street character. You know what those legs remind me of? Remember the magic snakes with the Rubik's Cube. Yeah they do. And that's Norm from [UNKNOWN]. So he works with Adam Savage's website and they do a lot of robotics reporting, too. But I just love this because I'm a big fan of the Darpa Robotics Challenge. I wanna go. Just as a spectator. Cuz this kind of thing is just mind-blowing what kind of robots they come up with. And it's not all bipedal humanoid robots. Like, they wanted, these people at JPL they really wanted to do a robot that necessarily doesn't look like a Disney character. But, it's going to fit the bill for rescue operations. More functions. Scientific operations. Cuz that's the thing too, we all want robots to look like C3PO or R2D2 but And I love that. However we need robots that actually function in the real world, in our world. Not just, they look cool in sci fi. Now the headless robot cheetah that he's working on. Oh my god. Which is incredibly scary looking. I put a link to it Steven I don't know. It goes faster now right? Oh good. Yeah right. And it can hurdle up Goes without help. No one has thought to do that. It just runs by itself. What is the purpose of this thing. [CROSSTALK] It's actually for, they use the military to carry stuff for the military. Yeah, like a pack horse. Like ammo. Yeah, like a pack horse. Pretty like a pack mule, pack horse that can do all terrain. But I wonder about that, too. Cuz here's the thing. Anytime military's in charge of a certain robotics project, I'm like, that's not just for helping. That's for. That's for shooting. So I wonder. [CROSSTALK] [CROSSTALK] Originally a military project. I know the whole DARPA Challenge. But the DARPA Challenge is also for space. It's also for rescue. It's also for. Oh. Really? So this is in the beginning when it's tethered, but then they take those things off and it keeps going. But does it really? I don't think cargo mules- he's going to knock all his cargo off his back. That's not for cargo. It looks like a robot buffalo or something. Yeah, that's not for cargo. I really think not putting a head on it was sinister. It's doing it so I don't fall in love with it. The minute they put a dog face on there, I'm going to adopt it. Okay this is without a safety harness. Okay this is the truly sinister part. I can't even do this course. [LAUGH] It is like a really fat deer.>>Hell, I can't do that.>>Yeah. Oh, wow.>>Wow>>Look at that chassis go. Pump those crazy legs. It hurts you. The ones that run on gasoline are terrifying. Yeah. They're loud. All they really need to do is put like a spider head on the front of that and pretty much it'll just run on nightmare fuel. Yeah. [LAUGH] [LAUGH] It's kinda scarier headless, cuz like you don't know which part to be scared of. Yeah. Can it go backwards just as fast? Because that would be amazing. And it doesn't have a face. We don't have to love it. Sorry. If I was in an army or something and like 20 of those were running at me I would put up the white flag. What if they were running with you? There's a Chris Pratt velociraptor situation. Yeah. It actually kinda reminds me of the Richard Brautigan. Palm, machines of loving grace when he talks about the robotic dear and the cybernetic meadow. Sorry. Sorry to get all poetic. No, that was so classy. Sorry to just drop in my English degree for five seconds. All of my college experience was worth it. Thanks Dad. Yeah, no, I feel like we're getting closer and closer to more animal robots, which I'm actually, not just dogs and cats and pets, but I love this idea. But the thing is military, so- I'm thinking they're gonna be more like those creepy **** spider robot things in that Tom Selleck movie runaway. Remember that? Oh yeah, as long as Gene Simmons is still alive, we have that threat, so- Yeah, on the other end of Creepy robots. We do have more artistic inspired robots. Leslie, our editor, actually wrote about a robot opera singer, and yeah. If you have [INAUDIBLE] the video of her [CROSSTALK] And this robot can't jump anything. It can hit high notes [MUSIC] This is vision right [INAUDIBLE] [LAUGH] Still better than mine. Those aren't the real robots, those are just people. This is from Spain. I was gonna say, I recognize this song. It's My Fair Lady, right, it's an adaptation of My Fair Lady. A lady. This song itself is from Fame. Fame, yeah! I had that soundtrack album. I know that, man. And the song is based on the poem. Think about it. [MUSIC] Does he actually sing or does he just sort of? He does sing! I made a video out of Leslie's story. Oh, there we go. No, Leslie ain't? Oh, crap. You never hear him sing in this video, but he did learn to sing. When he first came to the playhouse, he knew nothing, he would just sit in a chair. And they had to teach him how to do the whole play, all the actors. Oh, really? Took him like two years. I think it took. Yeah, it was two years of them working with him. They eventually taught him how to hit all his marks and he would sing with the crowd. He would conduct. You would see him swinging his arms, he was conducting the orchestra. So if you do the CNET search though, for robot singers, we've actually covered this. Not this particular opera, but- Oh, really? I know I've covered it, and I think maybe, I don't know, Kelsey or It's lovely and you guys have covered it. I covered it because I love singing robots. So there's always. I think they were singing a craft work song, of course. Obviously. Yeah. So if you do a certain. It's like lullabies to them. Yeah I don't remember the specific name, but they're bipedal humanoid robots and they sing. They did a Daft Punk song as well. Of course they did. Of course they did. So. Of course. Of course. I mean it's not like they're going to do Oak Ridge Boys, they're gonna do Daft Punk. That would be so awesome. I know, right. So anyway. [CROSSTALK] If you're watching us you wanna know more about entertainment robots for sure, you should do a search for singing robots, dancing robots on cnet, cause I know we've covered that quite a bit and that's something near and dear to our little robotic heart. I feel like to bring it all home a little bit as we wrap up here. I feel like bottom line there's still kind of a practicality gap in the world of what's available robotically right now. I mean maybe the exception being with the military, where there's terrifyingly effective robots. But we don't Well, we'll stay away from that. [LAUGH] Cuz you can't walk around good enough yet. Once you're able to get around easier and do things for us. [CROSSTALK] That we've seen. You'll just find them looking in your window one morning. Yeah, sure. Once they put a skin on them. I mean, that's a thing too. If you look on Twitter, always there's people worried about robots. stealing their jobs, I don't think you really have--unless you're in the auto industry, building a car, I honestly don't think you need to worry about this quite yet. On a consumer level, Rich, you mentioned a vacuum robots I've tested a few of those. They're terrible for the most part. [LAUGH] You take that back about my Roomba! But I mean you can't rely exclusively on a Roomba to keep the house clean. You can't, no. But it is amazing for getting under the bed. It's true, but it's $700 to get onto the bed. And then there's bartender robots, which aren't really robots, cuz they don't move around and ask you for martinis. They're still just stationary. They're still a novelty. Yeah, but I will say those Roombas work really well for both robo games and battle bots. If you want to destroy other robots, you put a Well giant, like you either have a fire torch or you have some sort of a like, like gavel that comes down full of blades it will work really well to kill other robots. And that's functional. Making violence is functional. I mean it vacuums and then kills robots so if you need that later, but I totally agree. And clean it up. Make the room defensive about robots. [LAUGH] We also just had the resurgence of battle bots on television. That's kind of a big deal. Yeah. I have to bring this up real quick. So, battle bots and robo games were actually the same thing in the beginning of time. And then they sort of split off into two different things. It's kind of like rift tracks and cinema Titanic. Exactly! And so, robo games is kind of like the cinematic, oh my god. I need a robot to talk for me. [LAUGH] Cinematic Titanic, sorry I said it. And they are Bay area based and they are a live show. But they just did a kick starter this year, so they have a website Series now. And that's actually the one that Grant Imahara from Mythbusters, ex-Mythbusters, it attached to. And then you've got this fantastic TV show that's just a lot of bells and whistles and kind of reminds us of the old TV show from BattleBots that was on in the 90s. And that's got You know, it's got cool Bobak mohawk guy from NASA, the tech reporter. It's got, like actual get ready to rumble people and sports reporters who look like they're slightly confused, but The robots really came to play. Yeah, exactly, but they're having fun, so it's like almost more of a Spectacle for television. Like they try to spice it up for tv audience. Whereas the robo games, when you go to that live show, it's like all metal and all like total geeks that are really into this. I mean, both geeks on both sides but it's a totally different experience. But a live experience and tv experience are both great. But they're two different things. But I did wanna say there was sort of a dynasty rift going on between the two. Cuz I don't think people kind of interchangeably use them. And they don't realize there's a whole legacy there. Mm-hm. But you can look it up online. It's all Wikipedia or something. I don't know. Just Interweb it. Just Interweb it. You can find out. So let's wrap it up with predictions. Let's say like, five, ten years out. How many more robots do you see in your life? Lots. I'll go last cuz mine sounds really like a cry for help. [LAUGH] All right, all right, elaborate there Steven. You said lots. I mean we're already seeing drones so those are gonna become autonomous pretty soon. And just robots walking around. We have a lot of assistant AI on our phones now. So you can kinda say your phone's a robot. Once it starts walking around. But yeah, robots are here. They're up in outer space right now. There's one that just fell asleep on a space station a couple weeks ago. [LAUGH] Typical. Typical. Lazy robots. Yeah. All right, Rich, what do you think? Well, I don't know. I mean that Pepper robot we talked about before. One of the things that does is it kind of learns and it grows as a person. So if you're nice to it it's happy. If you're not nice to it then it gets irritable. I'm like that's what people are for. If you wanted a thing that got grumpy with you when you were horrible to it you wouldn't have a robot. So. [LAUGH] [UNKNOWN] [LAUGH] So, there is going to be a bunch of angry Peppers walking around someday, you think? Maybe. maybe. With like flamethrowers that stick out the front and [UNKNOWN]- [LAUGH] The new pepper spray. Guys, I'm really controlling the Pepper projection here. [LAUGH] I like the pepper spray idea, that's good. Thank you, thank you, I'll be here all week. What about you, Kelsey, what do you think? Well, if we're talking about my life, do the ten different Bioware characters I'm dating count? [LAUGH] See, now I don't feel so bad, I'm glad you went ahead of me. Let's move on. I personally am excited for helper robots cuz Im lazy and I hate to do housework. Now I feel like I'm pro robot slavery which I think is going to be an issue for us at some point eventually when we start having AI and emotions and robot rights are going to be an issue. I'm all about anything that helps me with housework, anything that cooks for me or makes drinks for me. Yes, okay, yeah, a butler. I want a robot butler. And I want him to sound like Steven Fry. I want a Jeeves robot butler. And I also want him to do double duty as security. [NOISE] And maybe all of my accounting. So I just basically want all the responsibilities of adulthood to go to a robot so I can just goof off and play video games all day. Yeah, but then wouldn't you be worried? Or he'd think, I'm doing all the work around this house. I think we're gonna change the numbers a little bit. Yeah, and I don't care about hacking because people can hack now. So it doesn't really matter now. I mean, I just want more help. In conclusion, I'm lazy and I just want more robots. You just gave a great idea. You can download different celebrity voices for your robot. Yeah. Mm-hm. That's fantastic. Yeah. I know, right? It's like ringtones kinda. Yeah. Your basically sending us down the Battlestar Galactica road. You know, I realize I am the problem. [LAUGH] Everything Skynet or anything to do with Battlestar Gallactica, And I know that. But I feel like we can't help ourselves as humans when we find out there's something out there that could do all of the work we don't want to do for ourselves, we will jump on it. We don't want to do this boring stuff, we want to do the fun stuff. So if we can get a robot to do all the boring stuff, I'm down. I'm totally. I know eventually they will turn on us and kill us all. But in the meantime, I won't have to do my taxes. Yeah, so win-win. Yeah, it really is. What do you think? I don't know if I'm going to have that many. My main thought was that the pepper kind of robots. I'm thinking that when those do get more accepted, at least in America, there's probably going to be a large drop in vacuum cleaner injuries. [LAUGH] Again, that does not reflect me. Yeah, see all these drunk robots falling over? Oh yeah, this is great. These are the robots that couldn't manage to go upstairs, and, for the record, neither can C-3PO. This is the bloopers of the DARPA challenge, right? No, this is the majority. [LAUGH] [CROSSTALK] Yeah. [LAUGH] Yeah, see I feel like, do I really- Oh! Do we want these people driving our cars yet? No. Yeah, do you wanna be walking up the stairs and then your robot falls down the stairs on top of you? [CROSSTALK] I know. How many drunk robot related injuries- [CROSSTALK] Into the car. See, see, look at that. No. [LAUGH] Oh! That's what robosimian is for. He's gonna be the happy road trip guy, not that guy. You know I still feel for myself I think the default mode in the US is really skepticality of technology. I think if it's gonna go anywhere I think that robots are gonna remain invisible, more along the lines of what Steven was saying it's going to grow out of Siri and our smartphones. I have an Amazon Echo at home Yeah! Me too It's pretty cool and that seems to be the way it would go where you just Say something and you connect it to. Everything in itself is robotic in itself. You have a robotic coffee machine and then they're all networked together. What that video just displayed, I just don't think we're dialed in enough on the [INAUDIBLE] To just do full circle here, nano robotics, like Antman size robotics. [INAUDIBLE] So I feel like nano robotics has much more progressed than actual life size robots, so And we've done plenty of those stories on CNET if you want to do a search but nanorobotics is very interesting in the medical industry. Could be a lot more terrifying. And health care Yeah. Healthcare and kind of terrifying, however I feel like that may be where we're going. So maybe instead of going to these mega robot battles that seem really fun cool entertainment wise As far as usefulness, really tiny, tiny robots doing some really cool stuff in surgery and health. Maybe that's what we- maybe that's a whole episode that we do in the future. It could be. But I feel like you know don't discount that Ant man sized robots cuz they're important too. But the macro robot thing is still gonna be cool. [LAUGH] So is anyone working on any robot stories coming up? Next few weeks. No but we're working, we're gonna try to get to that challenge, that robot battle. We're gonna try to get there, get some cameras there. Yes. Yeah, and I've been looking into some stories where they're doing robots but they're giving them worm brains. So they're trying to use actual organic brains with these tiny robots. That's funny. So I'm going to look into that a bit more. I mean, I love robot stories, so I could write robot stories all day. But I also just got back from Comic-con, so I have like 20 Comic-con stories in my head still. And I'm recovering. Give them to me! Give them to me so I can put them on [UNKNOWN]! Kelsey's like hurry up, she's like I don't care about any of your other stories like [UNKNOWN] That kids reacting to encyclopedias, they'll still be there. But give me all your Star Wars and fun stories. And okay, so expect more Comic- Con coverage on CNET Crave in the next two or three days, definitely today. For me, right Kelsey? Yeah, it's true, yes. Okay, unless I get a robot to write it for me first. Hi-yoh! [LAUGH] And well, you mean Jeff? Hey! Well, I'm sure tomorrow as well, somebody on Crave is gonna be covering one robot that is very, very far away right now. Which is the New Horizons. Yep. Spacecraft which is going to be reaching it's closest rendezvous with Pluto tomorrow. So definitely- Yay! Yeah. We've got a gallery going of all the best photos it's sent back so far. And we're definitely watching this. Yeah I think Amanda's working on the gallery so. Amanda Cuther. Hi Amanda! So, yeah, and the photos already have been amazing. And it's going to come within like ten thousand miles of the actual surface of Pluto. And just as I was coming in here, there was a Tweet from NASA that they found it has an atmosphere. So they're looking at the atmosphere of Pluto right now, and they're going to look at Whether or not it does this kind of unprecedented thing where it actually shared an atmosphere with it's moon. So I mean it's like. Ooh, hello off-world colony. Right, so I mean like all kinds of cool stuff. So CNET.com/crave this week, keep checking back for that. And I think that's our time. Rich, anything else on robots or ant men or, you know, UK jingoism you want to add? [LAUGH] Lots and lots, I'm sure. [LAUGH] By the way, if you love this show, you should totally watch the UK. Video show that, you host that right, Rich? Where you guys get online and talk about stuff? [INAUDIBLE] podcast, yeah. We don't do it as a video any more because our producer couldn't be bothered. [LAUGH] It was so well produced, too. But it's a great podcast. A great podcast every week. So yeah, look out for it most Fridays. Everybody. I listen to it just cause I'm a huge Anglophile, I'm usually up during UK hours so I highly recommend it to anyone who watches us, you should listen to that as well. Absolutely, thanks, yeah. Awesome, thanks for joining us Rich. That's the Crave cast for today. Thanks everyone for having us in San Fransisco. This is a lot of fun. For Bonnie Burton, Kelsey Adams, Jeff Sparkman and Steven Beecham, I'm Eric Mac. That's the Crave cast, see you next month. Happy July. [MUSIC]