Boston Dynamics Turn Their Spot Quadruped Robots Into Talking Tour Guides Using ChatGPT

Matt Klingensmith of Boston Dynamics explained how they turned their Spot quadruped robots into talking tour guides using ChatGPT and simple speech-to-text scripts.

We created a robot tour guide using Spot integrated with Chat GPT and other AI models as a proof of concept for the robotics applications of foundational models.

He showcased the different personalities he and his team were able to develop, including a British butler, a Shakespearian actor and a sarcastic personality named “Josh”.

We had several personalities here. That was actually one of the most exciting things. All we had to do was modify the script slightly to give it a little bit of a prompt…we just added one sentence like, you are a 1920s archaeologist, you are a Shakespearean actor, you are a butler, right? And it would come up with these crazy personalities. It would incorporate its backstory into what it was seeing reinterpret things …One of the personalities early on that really surprised us was the uh sarcastic personality which we call Josh and that was like an experience I’ve never had with a robot in my entire life.

Lori Dorn
Lori Dorn

Lori is a Laughing Squid Contributing Editor based in New York City who has been writing blog posts for over a decade. She also enjoys making jewelry, playing guitar, taking photos and mixing craft cocktails.

Recent Posts