Does Your Robot Dog Have Feelings?

Author Meghan O’Gieblyn wondered how Sony could legally claim its robot dog,Aibo, had “real emotions.” But after one of the $3,000 devices nuzzled her,played fetch and sometimes ignored her commands, she found herself talking toit. And wondering: If it could feel, how could we possibly know any morethan we can know how biological critters feel, she writes in her upcomingbook, God, Human, Animal, Machine. We can’t get inside the head ofartificial intelligence, so knowing if it’s daydreaming may always be beyondour comprehension. So we’ll have to rely on what robots tell us and decide,perhaps on faith, whether we trust them.