VOA慢速英语2018 机器人人工智能水平仍有待提高

Robby Pepper can answer questions in Italian, English and German. He is Italy’s first robot concierge¹. He is deployed² at a hotel on the popular Lake Garda to help answer simple, usual questions from visitors.

Robby Pepper可以用意大利语、英语和德语回答问题。他是意大利首个迎宾机器人。他被部署在加尔达湖的一家酒店，帮助回答游客提出的简单而又常见的问题。

During one of Robby’s first days, Mihail Slanina, a guest from Moldova, congratulated the robot on his skills.

在Robby投入使用后不久，摩尔多瓦游客Mihail Slanina称赞了这个机器人的技能。

“He’s like a real person, he’s really good,” she said. “He talks, he shook my hand.”

她说：“他跟真人一样，他真的很棒！他会说话，还跟我握手。”

Japan’s Softbank Robotics created Robby. The Italian company Jampaa programed the robot. It can provide hotel guests with information they need, like where to find a restaurant and its hours of operation.

日本的软银机器人公司制造了Robby。意大利Jampaa公司对这个机器人进行了编程。它可以为酒店客人提供他们所需的信息，像是餐厅的位置和营业时间。

The summer season brings an increased number of visitors to Lake Garda. They will help Robby gain new knowledge and learn to answer more questions.

夏季给加尔达湖带来了越来越多的游客。他们将帮助Robby获得新知识并学会回答更多问题。

The use of robots is growing in service industries like tourism. Most of the robots serve mainly as novelties. But they are expected to become more useful as better artificial intelligence, or AI, is developed.

机器人在旅游等服务行业的应用正在增多。大多数机器人主要是被当作新奇玩意。但是随着更好的人工智能被开发出来，预计他们也会变得更加有用。

The International Federation³ of Robotics says about 79,000 professional service robots were sold last year. The Frankfurt, Germany-based organization expects up to 25 percent sales growth each year through 2020. These artificial intelligence machines include defense⁴ robots, cleaning robots, and medical robots.

国际机器人联合会称，去年全球售出了大约7.9万个专业服务机器人。这家总部位于德国法兰克福的组织预计销售额在2020年前每年都会增长25%。这些人工智能机器人包括国防机器人、清扫机器人以及医疗机器人。

In 2016, 7,200 public relations robots like Robby Pepper were sold — a 135 percent increase from 2015 sales.

2016年全球售出了7200个类似Robby Pepper的公关机器人，比2015年增长了135%。

Richard Windsor is a technology businessman in London. He says the use of robots is not yet common because artificial intelligence is not complex enough.

理查德·温莎(Richard Windsor）是伦敦的一位科技商人。他说，机器人的应用尚不普遍，因为人工智能不够复杂。

He says the proof is that the companies responsible for the two best AI systems, Google Assist and Baidu’s DuerOS, do not make robots.

他说，提供谷歌助手和百度DuerOS这两种最好人工智能系统的公司都不制造机器人，这就是明证。

Windsor says that the “novelty” robots will disappear after people get used to them. New service robots will appear when artificial intelligence improves, he says.

温莎表示，这些“新奇的”机器人在人们熟视无睹后就会消失不见。他说，当人工智能技术提高时，就会出现新的服务机器人。

“In order to make these things better, you need to gather data, so you have to be out there,” he said.

他说：“为了让这些变得更好，我们需要收集数据，所以必须走出来。”

Public acceptance is important to the robot industry. Experts say people in the United States and Japan seem more welcoming to robots than do people in Europe.

公众接受度对机器人行业非常重要。专家表示，美国人和日本人似乎比欧洲人更喜欢机器人。

Shoppers at a store in Scotland got one robot, Softbank’s Fabio Pepper, dismissed. Customers were not willing to talk to the robot. And a security robot at an office complex in Washington, DC made news last year when it rolled itself into a fountain and would not get out.

苏格兰一家商店的顾客迎来了软银公司的Fabio Pepper机器人，但是最终他被退了回来。顾客们不愿意跟机器人对话。华盛顿特区一栋办公大楼的安保机器人去年自己掉入喷泉中无法离开，一时成了新闻。

In the Italian town of Brescia, the Cayu car store is using another Softbank Pepper robot to sell cars. Named Cayuiki, the robot is programmed to give information on cars, play games, and gather information. Its presence is helping⁵ to bring in possible car buyers.

在意大利的布雷西亚小镇，Cayu汽车经销店开始使用另一个软银Pepper机器人销售汽车。这个名为Cayuiki的机器人进行了编程，用于提供汽车信息、玩游戏以及收集信息。它的存在有助于吸引潜在的购车者。

But, Andreas Barchetti, head of the Cayu dealership⁶, said to sell the cars, you still need human beings.

但是Cayu汽车经销店负责人Andreas Barchetti表示，卖车还得靠人。

I’m Susan Shand.

Words in This Story

concierge – n. an employee at a hotel whose job is to provide help and information to the people staying at the hotel

novelty – n. the quality or state of being new, different, and interesting

artificial – adj. not natural or real

fountain – n. a structure that sends a stream of water into the air in a garden, park

1 concierge   

n.管理员；门房

参考例句：

• This time the concierge was surprised to the point of bewilderment.这时候看门人惊奇到了困惑不解的地步。
• As I went into the dining-room the concierge brought me a police bulletin to fill out.我走进餐厅的时候，看门人拿来一张警察局发的表格要我填。

2 deployed   

（尤指军事行动）使展开( deploy的过去式和过去分词 )； 施展； 部署； 有效地利用

参考例句：

• Tanks have been deployed all along the front line. 沿整个前线已部署了坦克。
• The artillery was deployed to bear on the fort. 火炮是对着那个碉堡部署的。

3 federation   

n.同盟，联邦，联合，联盟，联合会

参考例句：

• It is a federation of 10 regional unions.它是由十个地方工会结合成的联合会。
• Mr.Putin was inaugurated as the President of the Russian Federation.普京正式就任俄罗斯联邦总统。

4 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

5 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

6 dealership   

n.商品特许经销处

参考例句：

• The car dealership has a large inventory of used cars. 这家汽车经销商拥有数量庞大的二手车。
• A key to this effort is the experience in the dealership. 达到这个成果的关键是销售的体验。