Penn-developed Robots Cameo on The Daily Show

Penn-developed Robots Cameo on The Daily Show

by Lida Tunesi

If you caught The Daily Show on March 7, you might have spotted a familiar four-legged robot taking part in a futuristic court case.

The robot’s name is Minitaur, and as noted in Technically Philly it is the product of Penn spin-off Ghost Robotics. Minitaur, Ghost Robotics’ flagship robot, is designed to deal with unpredictable terrain by “feeling” the ground it walks on.

Technically Philly’s Roberto Torres:

The robot — which also played a starring role at the launch of Pennovation in 2016 — makes an appearance in a dystopian dream by correspondent Ronny Chieng, an attorney looking into how artificial intelligence is being used to streamline legal processes, though at a cost.

Though Minitaur does not, in reality, deal with the law, other Penn engineers are researching how AI and the judicial system intersect, including how algorithms sometimes make decisions more biased and less fair while trying to do the opposite.