George Clooney has been supplanted: the new face-image of Nestlè to advertise Nespresso coffee machines is called Pepper and is a robot, or rather an android. Standing 120 centimeters tall, with a human-like face mounted on a white plastic body fitted with wheels, a tablet screen on his chest, Pepper is quite chatty, for a robot, and programmed to read impressions and emotions on customers' faces and to answer their questions.
He also shows that he has a certain sense of humour, as when, during a promotional event, he asked one of the guests: “How do you like your coffee? Like 'eyes wide open' or like 'a moment of relaxation after lunch?'”. The android, the designers claim, can understand 80% of an informal conversation and respond accordingly. Pepper was created by Aldebaran Robotics for Japan's SoftBank Mobile, a subsidiary of the leading telecommunications company SoftBank Corporation, and has already been used to sell mobile phones in 74 SoftBank stores.
“Pepper – reads a release signed by Nestlè and SoftBank – will help us discover the needs and desires of consumers by having a conversation with our customers”. The robot's artificial intelligence, according to the engineers who designed it, is able to expand its conversational capacity by listening and recording what human interlocutors say.
George Clooney, much to the displeasure of a large part of the female audience, is not for sale, but those who want to take home the new Nespresso testimonial will be able to do so, starting in February, at the price of almost 200 yen (about €1.350).
