A robopet revolution: the new breed of bots both bows and wows: just in time for Christmas, "comfort toys" promise comfort and jog. Cute, yes—but will consumers cuddle up? - Feature

Japan, Inc., Dec, 2003 by Tony McNicol

Would a robot that can behave just Like a real pet be artificially intelligent?

Well, since no one has been able to agree on a definition for AI, I think you'd find a lot of people arguing about that.

Personally, I like to be pragmatic about these things. Can our new robot pet stimulate and entertain people as much as a real pet? If so, then something interesting has been created.

But is that something intelligent? It depends on your definition of intelligence and possibly on the intelligence of the user.

What challenges face manufacturers trying to make intelligent, interactive and entertaining robot pets?

I think the main challenge will be providing the robots with behavior patterns that are complex enough so that human users don't get bored.

Humans are very good at recognizing patterns. They lose interest when they think that they are seeing the same patterns over again. Technological advances will provide all the power needed to support complex behaviors in principle. But getting really good behavior out of these robots will require ingenuity and lots of user testing. However, the real challenge will be who can get to market with the most stimulating interactive pet robot first. That will be a major achievement

Do you think we ate going to see animal AI before human AI?

Given that one might take passing the Turing Test as a criteria for human AI, I think it much more likely that a "Pet Test" would be the one passed first.