As the threat of artificial intelligence growing to replace human workers reaches a fever pitch, one robot-run cafe in Tokyo stands as a reminder of how technology can be used for good.
Dawn Avatar Robot Cafe is full of human diners enjoying tasty meals — and robots with green light-up eyes serving them. But the robots aren’t controlled by AI or some other computer programming. They are operated by disabled workers who are clocking in from home.
It all started when Ory Yoshifuji was a child, quarantined at home for three and a half years with an illness that kept him from attending school or hanging out with friends.
“I wondered,” Yoshifuji told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, “‘Why couldn't I have a second body?’”
He went on to recover and study robotics in college, starting his company, Ory Laboratory, and creating the remote-control OriHime robot. After a few pop-up cafe experiments, he opened a permanent location.
“We’ve managed to create a situation where people, even if they can’t physically move around much, can still participate as members of society and as productive members of the workforce,” he told the ABC.
The workers — of which there are about 100 now — are called pilots. They work from their home computers, where they can move around the cafe through a remote control and speak to customers directly.
“Every word, every head tilt, every order taken — that’s a real human controlling them in real time,” Evie Parker, a tech enthusiast influencer, shared from the cafe in a recent vlog.
“The pilots of these robots are people with ALS, spinal cord injuries … conditions that keep them home. And this lets them work, earn paychecks, talk to strangers, have a normal everyday shift.”
Of course, a person’s value is not dependent on whether they can work or contribute to the economy. But OriHome robots allow people who do want to engage with the world in this way to do so safely and with autonomy.
One pilot, Naoki, has severe heart failure and is awaiting a heart transplant. He was told he had to stop working.
“I retreated into my shell,” he said in a video.
But then, he found his purpose again at Dawn Cafe.
“My first impression was that I am able to return to society,” Naoki said. “Now that I work like this, the joy of it is more prominent. I enjoy my days together with the customers. The way I feel … has changed completely. It’s like my feelings have been transplanted.”
Yoshifuji opened the Dawn Cafe in 2021, and has since expanded the OriHome offerings to include a mobile robot that guests can take with them to carry around Tokyo for a personalized tour of the area.
“What I loved about having our tour guide right on our shoulder is I feel like it was really flexible,” Canadian tourist Andrea Wheaton told the ABC.
“You can hear the warmth through their voice and some giggles on their end,” her husband, Dave Schultz, added.
Parker, the tech influencer, also shared that she had a great time with her OriHome pilot.
“I had a great meal, and I met a new friend, Maya, who was the pilot of my robot,” Parker said in her vlog. “We talked the whole time while I had lunch.”
While emerging technology certainly comes with valid concerns, Parker emphasized that it can also be used to help people and create solutions.
“The truth is, robots aren’t the scary part,” she concluded. “The real question is, what will we build them for?”
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Featured Image: Courtesy of Dawn Avatar Robot Cafe
