Cruises: Pepper Robots

A cruise is a cruise, right? Um, not quite. And certainly not if you walk onto a cruise ship and are greeted by a robot that faintly resembles a Pillsbury doughboy. Now imagine that robot talking to you soothingly, sympathetically, comfortingly… welcome to cruises with a difference. Italian cruise line Costa Cruises plays great innovator by installing five of these ‘Pepper Robots’ on one of their ships, the Costa Diadema. The android is able to recognise emotions thanks to its advanced artificial intelligence, and can speak three languages including English. Pepper can interact with its surroundings at an advanced level, since it picks up a conversation when it senses someone’s nearby. Oh, and don’t worry, it’s a happy robot. When asked whether it’s planning to destroy the world, it responded with a definite ‘no’.