PETA Wants to Replace Punxsutawney Phil With an Animatronic AI
upstart from IRC writes:
PETA wants to replace Punxsutawney Phil with an animatronic AI:
When we imagine the future of artificial intelligence, we tend to think of the technology making most human jobs obsolete. But if PETA has its way, an AI could also take over for the world's most famous groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil. In a letter signed by PETA founder and president Ingrid Newkirk, the organization calls on the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club, the group that takes care of the world-famous woodchuck, to allow the rodent to retire and let a robot like Sony's adorable Aibo dog take over the job of predicting the weather.
"Using technologically advanced electromechanical devices such as animatronics instead of live animals is more popular than ever," wrote Newkirk. "We even have the technology to create an animatronic groundhog with artificial intelligence (AI) that could actually predict [PETA's emphasis, not Engadget's] the weather."
The way the group sees it, not only would an AI be better at estimating when the winter will end, but it would also attract an entirely new generation of visitors to the western Pennsylvanian town. "Today's young people are born into a world of terabytes, and to them, watching a nocturnal rodent being pulled from a fake hole isn't even worthy of a text message," Newkirk said. "Ignoring the nation's fast-changing demographics might well prove the end of Groundhog Day."
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