I read somewhere that cuteness is a biological trait shared by the young of most mammals. Its evolutionary function is to compel mothers to bond with their babies. Button noses, enormous eyes, round cheeks, and Cupie doll mouths are endowments guaranteed to elicit an “Awww” response from adult animals of almost every species and a preternatural need to proffer protection. Love of cute is hardwired into most mammalian gene pools. Grown-ups of every animal species are big suckers,whether it be for baby seals, ducklings, infant chimps or itsy-bitsy human babies. But…robots?

Whether tenderness extends to baby robots is a leap of credence that requires some pretty compelling evidence. Thanks to a delightful experiment conducted by a student named Kacie Kinzer, we have the evidence. As described on the O’Reilly Media website, Kinzer, a student enrolled in NYU’s Tisch Interactive Telecommunications Program, created a darling-faced little robot called a Tweenbot. It wore a label stating its destination but was programmed to move in a straight line. She turned it loose in New York City’s Washington Square Park and observed what strangers would do when, predictably, it ran into fences, benches, passersby and other obstacles. Would they leave it to struggle? Would they set it down on the right path? Would they stuff it in their pockets or worse, a trash can? Would they stomp it with their boot heels?

We are happy to report that cuteness triumphed. As reported on O’Reilly,

“Over the course of the following months, throughout numerous missions, the Tweenbots were successful in rolling from their start point to their far-away destination assisted only by strangers. Every time the robot got caught under a park bench, ground futilely against a curb, or became trapped in a pothole, some passerby would always rescue it and send it toward its goal. Never once was a Tweenbot lost or damaged. Often, people would ignore the instructions to aim the Tweenbot in the “right” direction, if that direction meant sending the robot into a perilous situation. One man turned the robot back in the direction from which it had just come, saying out loud to the Tweenbot, ‘You can’t go that way, it’s toward the road.’”

Charmed by the tiny robot’s smiley face, disarmed by its fragile helplessness and stirred by the primal need to protect an innocent (albeit an innocent piece of machinery), humanity came through with flying colors. And not just any humanity – New York humanity!

A map of Tweenbot’s tergiversations can be seen on the O’Reilly site.

A word about the Tisch Interactive Telecommunications Program, the fertile environment that gave birth to this engaging experiment. A page on the program’s website describes it thus:

An oversized Greenwich Village loft houses the computer labs, rotating exhibitions, and production workshops that are ITP — the Interactive Telecommunications Program. Founded in 1979 as the first graduate education program in alternative media, ITP has grown into a living community of technologists, theorists, engineers, designers, and artists uniquely dedicated to pushing the boundaries of interactivity in the real and digital worlds. A hands-on approach to experimentation, production and risk-taking make this hi-tech fun house a creative home not only to its 220 students, but also to an extended network of the technology industry’s most daring and prolific practitioners.

Next time an out-of-towner utters a cynical remark about New Yorkers, tell them about Kacie Kinzer and her Tweenbot.

RC