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This Swordless Samurai Robot Is Seeking Harmony with Humans

'AI Samurai' is going on a world pilgrimage to find itself.

Japanese researchers are taking service robots to the next creative level. Engineers from technology company Nextremer have embraced their cultural heritage and created an "AI samurai" that aims to explore how robots can better coexist with humans.

AI Samurai is a slightly creepy-looking robot decked out in traditional Japanese warrior garb. This samurai, however, has ditched its sword and war-faring nature and instead comes equipped with a system dubbed "A.I. Galleria." This gives it facial recognition software, among other tricks, so that it can recognise and communicate with humans in real time. AI Samurai's creators have designed it to be a guide and information provider at events and conferences across the world.

The creators plan for the robot to leave Japan in March 2016 and participate in the SXSW Interactive 2016 event in the US, before beginning a world pilgrimage to find out the meaning of being a robot.

"During the tour, our buddy, named the AI-Samurai, will relentlessly take up challenges in the real world through conversations with people from around the globe," write the creators on their website. "The Samurai without a sword will henceforth interact with humans and keep seeking the ultimate answer for harmonious coexistence."

People can also get to know AI Samurai by playing a quiz with the bot called "Warlords Diagnosis." It basically consists of the robot asking a user a set of questions then matching up their character to a popular Japanese warlord from the Warring States period (1467-1568) in Japan.

For those worrying about any Terminator-esque scenarios, it seems like this 21st century swordless quizbot won't pose much of a threat.