Forget the robots — here come the geminoids!

AUSTIN – Androids, geminoids and old-fashioned robots roamed the halls of the South by Southwest Interactive Festival this weekend in a plethora of sessions and demonstrations. They posed a strong argument that a robotic future is not coming – it’s here.

There were no visible anti-robot demonstrations this year, as there were last year. But the tone at some of the sessions and even some of their titles, such as “Robot Armageddon: AI, Jobs and Inequality” or "Will AI Augment or Destroy Humanity?", showed that humans and robots still occupy an uneasy existence with one another.

One of the more popular sessions was given Sunday by Japanese roboticist Hiroshi Ishiguro, who brought along several foot-high robots he calls “consumers” and a full-scale, lifelike android resembling himself – same dark clothing, same facial features, same haircut. The android, named after him, sat on a chair on stage a few feet away from Ishiguro, blinking at the audience and holding spontaneous conversations when spoken to.

To the "oohs" and "aahs" of the audience, the Ishiguro android held two unassisted conversations – one in English, another in Japanese – that seemed to have the spontaneity and inflection of a human interaction.

“I’m from Osaka, Japan. Where is your birthplace?” the android asked a human participant on stage named Courtney.

“I’m from Texas,” Courtney answered.

“Did you know there are actually two time zones in Texas?” the android said in a voice that sounded identical to Ishiguro’s. “Isn’t that annoying?”

GEMINOIDS CAN ATTEND A MEETING FOR YOU

A geminoid looks exactly like an android, but is equipped with technology that allows a user to manipulate it and talk through it remotely.

Ishiguro said he could send a geminoid in his place to a conference in Tokyo while he stays behind in Osaka, talking through the geminoid using a "brain-machine interface" that fits on his head and allows him to see and communicate with the audience. Ishiguro showed a video that showed a geminoid that looked exactly like the android he had on stage, talking and reacting to other people.

His androids are already being used as shopkeepers, TV hosts and theater actors throughout Japan, all comprehending and responding to humans, he said.

“I think we’ll have a robot society in the very near future, in maybe three or five years,” Ishiguro said.

In another session, executives at Paris-based Aldebaran Robotics showed off Pepper, an affable, five-foot high shiny white robot that is able to interact with humans. Pepper is marketed as a “companion robot” that would live with humans and could remind them when a favorite TV show is coming on or help with a weather forecast but not grab a beer out of the fridge – yet.

As the technology develops and the development community gets more involved, Pepper’s uses could expand into more specific areas, such as taking care of elderly relatives, panelists said.

Unlike the humanlike features of Ishiguro’s android, Pepper is intentionally made to look like a machine, said Rodolphe Gelin, chief scientific officer at Aldebaran.

“We don’t want to cheat people: if it’s a robot, it’s a robot,” he said. “If you ever have to question [whether] that’s a human being or a robot, that’s no good.”

Fears of a dystopian future where robots rule over humans have been associated with robot technology, fueled in part by popular movies like the Terminator series. Those fears were stoked somewhat when news spread through the festival that the artificial intelligence program AlphaGo, developed by Google's DeepMind unit, defeated a human champion three straight times at the ancient Chinese board game of Go.

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Thavidu Ranatunga, chief information officer for California-based Fellow Robots, said he could see why people may be alarmed at the rapid pace of robot technology. But robots are still several decades away from posing any real concerns, he said. When it happens, the technology will arise in a natural, inevitable way, he said.

“It’s a case of how you treat it when it happens,” Ranatunga said. “If you try to get in its way, you may have conflict. If you try to work with it, things will go better.”

Sougwen Chung, a New York-based artist, has chosen to work with them. She’s created a robotic arm, named D.O.U.G. (Drawing Operations Unit: Generation-1), that draws in real-time symmetry with her, following her strokes but creating its own movements. The goal is create a symbiotic, artistic relationship with a robot, she said.

“I wanted to explore human-machine interaction,” Chung said after presenting her project at a talk outside of SXSW's officials halls. “What I didn’t realize is what a well of empathy it would create for me.”

Ishiguro, the roboticist, said humans could learn more about the human mind as they continue to develop the technology to build autonomous robots.

He closed the session by letting his android and his “consumer” robot engage in a brief conversation with one another. The talk quickly turned existential.

“What is the meaning of our existence?” the android asked.

“What is humans? What are robots?” the robot answered. “That will bring us to the truth.”

 Follow USA TODAY Austin correspondent @MrRJervis on Twitter.