Cog was a project at the Humanoid Robotics Group of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It was based on the hypothesis that human-level intelligence requires gaining experience from interacting with humans, like human infants do. This in turn required many interactions with humans over a long period. Because Cog's behavior responded to what humans would consider appropriate and socially salient environmental stimuli, the robot was expected to act more human. This behavior also provided the robot with a better context for deciphering and imitating human behavior. This was intended to allow the robot to learn socially, as humans do.
As of 2003, all development of the project had ceased.
Today Cog is retired to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology museum.
One motivation for making humanoid robots can be understood in the book Philosophy in the Flesh by Mark Johnson and George Lakoff. They argue that the contents of human thoughts are to some degree dependent on the physical structure of our brains. By constructing artificial intelligence systems that have structural features similar to those of humans, we may be more likely to achieve human-like functionality.
Another motivation for building humanoid robotic systems is that a machine with a human-like form may have more human-like interactions with people. This could be particularly important for an artificial intelligence device to learn from people in the way that human children learn through interactions within a social group.
Marvin Minsky criticized the project, that Cog should be built as a software simulation, "because robotics research is really a software problem".[1]
Cog appeared on ABC's Brave New World in a segment drumming with They Might Be Giants titled "Dan vs. Cog".[2]
Cog appeared in the Understanding television series episode "The Senses".
Cog appeared in Sherry Turkle's book Alone Together
Cog's earliest popular science appearance was the 1994 Bringing Up RoboBaby[3] published in Wired and authored by David H. Freedman. As confirmed in the original project proposal by Brooks and Stein,[4] Freedman reports AI consciousness was part of the original goal.