Japanese robot hotel pulls plug on droid staff
More than half of the automated workforce has been fired following complaints
A Japanese hotel run by robots has “fired” more than half of its 243 droid staff after guests said they were inefficient and irritating.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the robots at Nagasaki-based hotel Henn na - a name that translates as “strange” or “weird” - frequently “created work rather than reduced it” and failed to do their jobs properly.
One guest told the US-based newspaper that he had been “roused every few hours” during his stay because a virtual assistant robot found in each room repeatedly asked: “Sorry, I couldn’t catch that. Can you repeat your request?”
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
It turned out that the robot, called Churi, was interpreting the guest’s snoring as voice commands.
Other customers complained that the Churi “dolls” would not stop talking and were difficult to understand, while some simply found them annoying, reports tech news site Gizmodo.
The virtual assistants were scrapped after the hotel’s management realised they were unable to answer basic questions or follow simple commands. Humanoid concierge robots also got the axe for the same reason.
Meanwhile, human staff “ended up working overtime to repair robots that stopped working”, says the Daily Mirror.
Henn na opened in 2015 and was certified by Guinness World Records the following year as the first hotel to be staffed by robots.
The travel company that owns it has since opened seven similar hotels across Japan, all with robots on the staff.
The chain’s president, Hideo Sawada, says he hasn’t given up on his dream of having hotels run by droids, but admits: “When you actually use robots you realise there are places where they aren’t needed - or just annoy people.”
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Today's political cartoons - October 13, 2024
Sunday's cartoons - the swing of things, fear of facts, and more
By The Week US Published
-
5 timely cartoons about climate change denial
Cartoons Artists take on textbook trouble, bizarre beliefs, and more
By The Week US Published
-
Kris Kristofferson: the free-spirited country music star who studied at Oxford
In the Spotlight The songwriter, singer and film-star has died aged 88
By The Week UK Published
-
'Stunningly lifelike' AI podcasts are here
Under the Radar Users are amazed – and creators unnerved – by Google tool that generates human conversation from text in moments
By Abby Wilson Published
-
OpenAI eyes path to 'for-profit' status as more executives flee
In the spotlight The tension between creating technology for humanity's sake and collecting a profit is coming to a head for the creator of ChatGPT
By Theara Coleman, The Week US Published
-
Microsoft's Three Mile Island deal: How Big Tech is snatching up nuclear power
In the spotlight The company paid for access to all the power made by the previously defunct nuclear plant
By Theara Coleman, The Week US Published
-
How will the introduction of AI change Apple's iPhone?
Today's Big Question 'Apple Intelligence' is set to be introduced on the iPhone 16 as part of iOS 18
By Justin Klawans, The Week US Published
-
How UK companies are tracking their employees
The Explainer PwC is latest to use geo-location to monitor workers, in 'sinister' increasingly widespread trend
By Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week UK Published
-
AI and the 'cocktail party problem'
Under The Radar The human ear can naturally filter out background noise. Now technology has been developed to do the same
By Elizabeth Carr-Ellis, The Week UK Published
-
AI is cannibalizing itself. And creating more AI.
The Explainer Artificial intelligence consumption is outpacing the data humans are creating
By Devika Rao, The Week US Published
-
Questions arise over the use of an AI crime-fighting tool
Under the Radar The tool was used in part to send a man to prison for life
By Justin Klawans, The Week US Published