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An emotional robot just met Neil deGrasse Tyson and the results were adorably strange

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Clinton Global Initiative

One world-renowned astrophysicist. 

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One emotive robot.

One giant hug:

What lead to this embrace? 

Neil deGrasse Tyson, the astrophysicist at the American Museum of Natural History and host of "StarTalk Radio" and "Cosmos," was moderating at the Clinton Global Initiative's "The Future of Global Impact" conference on Monday.

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He was briefly joined on stage by Pepper, the emotive humanoid robot built by the French lab Aldebaran for the Japanese telecom giant Softbank. 

Described by its designers as "the first humanoid robot designed to live with humans," Pepper has already been dispatched to do consumer research in phone stores, and it's intended to help take care of Japan's booming elder population

The robot came on stage and talked with Tyson about why it didn't want robots to be thought of as scary machines intent on taking over the world.

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Clinton Global Initiative

Pepper wants to help people out. 

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Clinton Global Initiative

It was enough for Tyson, who said that Pepper was "nothing like Terminator," referencing the action films where robots dominate the human race.

Pepper will cost about $1,900 when it's available in 2016.

Here's the whole video, take a look (About 10 minutes in):

 

Artificial Intelligence
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