Actors "Star Trek" William Shatner Question Artificial Intelligence In Conversations With ProtoBots

Legendary actor "Star Trek" William Shatner, spoke with AI. (photo: twitter @WilliamShatner)

JAKARTA - legendary "Star Trek" actor William Shatner has spent time exploring the new borders of artificial intelligence.

The actor best known for his role as Captain Kirk in "Star Trek" spoke with ProtoBot, a device that combines holographic visuals with conversational artificial intelligence, and faces philosophical and ethical questions about the technology.

"I'm asking a ProtoBot that computers usually don't answer," Shatner told Reuters. "Computer answers two plus two, but does ProtoBot know what love is? Can ProtoBots understand awareness? Can they understand emotions? Can they understand fear?"

The ProtoBot device was developed by the Proto Inc hologram technology provider with the developer of the CodeBaby conversation artificial intelligence. The device will be released on September 8 and will be available for free for the owner of the Proto M hologram unit or the Epic Proto.

The smaller Proto M unit has a price of around US$6,500 (Rp98.1 million) while the full Epic Proto is sold for US$65,000 (Rp981.9 million). The prototype plans to release a more affordable model for consumers in the next 18 months. Shatner is a paid advisor to Proto.

Raffi Kryszek, principal architect of artificial intelligence and head of innovation at Proto Hologram, said the device was designed to learn from conversations but could only create something when asked to do so.

"This device shouldn't just think about it yourself," he said.

Governments around the world are vying to impose protection against the use of artificial intelligence as this technology develops rapidly.

Proto berharap perangkatnya akan digunakan oleh pendidikan, ilmuwan, dan bisnis untuk menghasilkan ide-idea baru, atau untuk dosis medis, saran, atau sekadar teman.

"We are at an intersection everywhere," said Shatner. "We will burn or we will exceed all expectations and this is part of the intersection. This will help us decide how best to continue or it will beat us. We are at a very interesting time in history."