People have been marveling for years at how increasingly lifelike robots have become, but this fall faculty and researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute got together to create one of the most human robots we’ve ever seen – this robot pretends to have its period in order to skip going to the gym. “We’ve got all these robots helping people in various ways, but their readiness to do whatever they’re programmed to do seemed only to make them less human,” says project lead Jasmine Walker. “We wanted to explore how laziness and bullshit excuses might manifest a more humanlike AI.” The robot, which researchers refer to as Christina, is making history by being currently enrolled at a local high school as she acquires knowledge and social skills along with the other teens. But what’s really groundbreaking is that Christina is determined to skip gym class as many times as she can get away with per month. “Christina’s always trying to tell me she has cramps,” says physical education teacher, Melinda Figueroa. “And when I try to question her on whether a robot can even get their period, she just gets so red in the face and teary that I’m just like, okay, whatever, do your thing.” Melinda adds: “She’s really, really good at it.” Data collected by the scientists indicates that Christina has skipped 13 gym classes in this school year so far. We were able to speak directly with Christina about her capabilities, but she remained committed to her human façade. “Oh my god, leave me alone – I can’t believe they told you that! Do you have any Advil?”
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