By Peter Cohan
Publication Date: 2026-02-25 18:48:00
Desdemona, a humanoid robot designed by Hanson Robotics with expressiveness and interactivity to teach AI to understand and care for humans, will be shown at a SXSW conference titled “How to Make AGI Beneficial and Avoid a Robot Apocalypse” in Austin, Texas, on March 12, 2024. David Hanson – founder of Hanson Robotics and who designed Desdemona, a humanoid robot that runs on generative AI – pondered the pluses and minuses of superpowered AI. AI’s “positive disruptions can help solve global sustainability problems, although humans will likely only develop financial trading algorithms that are completely effective,” he said. Hanson fears the disruption caused by AI, but points out that humans are already doing a “good job” of playing “existential roulette” with nuclear weapons and causing “the fastest mass extinction in human history.” (Photo by SUZANNE CORDEIRO / AFP) (Photo by SUZANNE CORDEIRO/AFP via Getty Images)
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