Raphael Thys
Dictador / Futurism
CEObot 5000
Over the past year, we've all become intimately familiar with sophisticated but deeply flawed AI chatbots that can draft up a work email or high school essay with a simple prompt. Even the concept of working alongside AI algorithms seems far less far-fetched than it did just a year ago.
But what if you had to report to an AI boss instead? And what if that AI came in the form of a creepy, uncanny-looking humanoid robot CEO?
Earlier this year, Polish drinks company Dictador announced that it had anointed a robot called Mika as its "experimental CEO."
The robot was created by Hanson Robotics, the company also behind the famed humanoid Sophia, and was hailed as the "first AI human-like robot CEO" of a global company.
"I don't really have weekends — I'm always on 24/7, ready to make executive decisions and stir up some AI magic," the robot told Reuters in a "video interview" at the time.
Slow Uptake
But while the rum company sees its robot as the key to its future successes, others aren't as convinced the tech is ready for prime time just yet.
Fox Business reporter Lauren Simonetti recently interviewed Mika over a video call and found that there was a "significant delay" in the time it takes for the robot to actually respond.
Simonetti also took to the streets, asking New York City residents what they thought of the robotic CEO. While one person said they would treat it with compassion, another person argued that "robots don't need respect" because they're "just machines."
If machine learning systems do keep getting stronger, though, using them in lieu of human executives might not be the farthest-fetched idea.
In a survey from earlier this year, for instance, The Hustle found that 40 percent of all respondents said it makes sense to replace CEOs with AI.
After all, they won't think twice about dirty work like firing human employees.