A Look t Some of the Virtual Friends We’ve Made Over the Years (3 of 5)

Sony’s Aibo

It seems that at one time or another every technology-based company has introduced their version of a robot dog to the amazement and wonderment of nerds, dorks, and dweebs who attend these technology conventions. But none were more iconic than Aibo, Sony’s successful take on the cyborg version of man’s best friend. Launched in 1999 with a hefty price tag of $2,000, Sony was able to eventually sell an impressive 150,000 robot canines by 2015!

IBM’s Watson

The year 2011 is when the robots finally emerged victorious over humanity…at Jeopardy at least. That January, IBM’s supercomputer Watson took legendary Jeopardy Wizards Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter to school. What was its secret? Researchers had fed Watson 200 million pages worth of content, including encyclopedias, movie scripts, and books. Its ability to browse through 2 million pages in three seconds made it the perfect participant for a game show that tested general knowledge. However, having access to less-than-accurate information, like the kind provided in user-submitted Urban Dictionary proved to be Watson’s downfall.