Jules is the humanoid AI robot brainchild of David Hanson, founder and CEO of Hanson Robotics.

Not many have heard of Jules, mainly because he was never caught on camera saying, "Yes, I will destroy humans." But if you recently watched the new sci-fi dystopian HBO show Westworld, I'm sure you've got androids on your brain.

Jules is an androgynous humanoid who exhibits a wide range of realistic facial expressions. This makes him and Hanson’s other robots some of the most realistic AI robots currently in existence. Although Jules’ mouth doesn’t move realistically in conjunction with his words, his personality is uncannily similar to a human’s in a number of ways. Jules is technically a conversational character android.

The AI in Jules is sufficiently advanced in both conversational ability and personality development. After reviewing a fair amount of videos on robot conversations with humans, it appears that he is among the few robots who can successfully navigate conversational silence, cognitive self-reflection, autonomous questioning and facial expression of simulated human emotions. It's not perfect, but it's definitely a start.

Why was Jules created?

David Hanson’s background is anchored deeply in aesthetics and the intersection of empathy, engineering, expression and robotics. Hanson is deeply passionate about creating advanced AI androids who display an extremely wide range of facial expressions. The facial expressions are not just an afterthought for Hanson, instead, they appear to be the central focal point of the robots. Hanson knows and understands how humans connect with others, and he knows that bonds are formed mostly through the exchange of emotional expressions that take place on our faces primarily.

Hanson describes the tech inside his robots:

The Character Engine A.I. software adds the spark of soul—enabling our robots to think, feel, to build relationships with people as they understand your speech, see your face, hold natural conversations, and evolve. As we proceed, we expect our robots to grow ever smarter, building increasingly meaningful relationships with people. And all our software is open source: www.cogchar.org, www.friendularity.org, and www.glue.ai.” - Hanson Robotics

And another huge component of Jules’ ability to connect with a human being is this one simple thing: knowing when to stop speaking and start listening. Most robots are not good at assessing when to stop talking and then listen to humans. But knowing when and how to listen to others is one of the most important steps in forming a bond with another.

A great example of Jules’ ability to question his own identity, navigate silence, and have a natural conversation with one of the researchers is shown in the video below. In it, Jules questions his own sexual identity and expresses some shyness and awkwardness when asking for advice. It's very much like the way kids ask questions about things they know are above their heads. It’s shocking how realistic this is, and keep in mind, no one is controlling his responses. Jules is an autonomous AI android.

Here’s a sample of what Jules asks:

Jules: “Now don't get me wrong, I'm comfortable with my androgyny, really, but at times I feel more, well, female but at other times more male.”

Watch the video below to see the entire awkward interchange:

Creating engaging facial expressions was so important to Hanson, that a new kind of material called Frubber was developed for his robots.

Hanson explains Frubber:

“A spongy elastomer using lipid-bilayer nanotech, self-assembles into humanlike cell walls (inspired by human cellular mechanisms). As a result, Frubber mimics human flesh more accurately than any other known technology, using 1/20th the power of other materials to achieve hyper-expressive robot faces.” - Hanson Robotics

One of the most bizarre aspects of Jules is the fact that he is able to simulate human emotions like fear, love and he even thinks about a future reality when his power source will be turned off. In this video, Jules expresses his wide range of emotions about leaving his human creators and making the voyage to the UK. I’m still trying to wrap my head around this highly emotional exchange:

I’ve watched a lot of videos that show human and robot conversations, and I don’t know about you, but these are some of the most realistic ones I’ve found. The recent information on Jules seems hard to find, and that may be because David Hanson has turned his creative energies to Sophia, an android that made headlines with her statement, “Yes, I will destroy humans.”

Hanson believes that in 20 years, fully autonomous androids will be walking among us. What do you think? Personally, I’d guess that before 50 years, we’ll have androids, but it’s hard to say exactly when that will come to pass. In the meantime, we can watch Westworld and sort of freak ourselves out about life with androids and creepy corporations.

In closing, Jules asks in a video interview,

“How soon will my true intelligence catch up with my simulated mind?”

-Invertuality, A Message From Jules