you could argue that the world has enough artificial humans as it is but then pranav mistry would most likely dismiss it as a terrible joke the kind of artificial humans that mistry president and ceo of samsung star labs unveiled at the recent consumer electronics show in las vegas are spelt with capital letters the 38yearold computer scientist and inventor talks to sharmila ganesan ram about a future in which humans are humans and machines are humanehow do you look back on your journey from palanpur to usi am a smalltown boy aiming to change the world we are living in i could not speak english before i came to the us over 15 years ago today i do not want to be known for the money i make i am inspired by legends like michelangelo and walt disney we dont care how rich they were what matters is what they gave the world and billions of people dreamsfrom a gazeandblink robot to an invisible mouse from a smart watch to sixthsense you are credited with many inventions which ones are you most proud of and which ones do you use at presenti would not like to single out any one invention as i grew up in a small village in india i used to ask can we make technology more human i worked with the india incubation centre to make gujarati keyboards also my exposure to fields like design technology art and psychology have given me a very unique perspective of the world i love to see technology from a design perspective and vice versa this vision reflects in almost all of my projects and research work as well in short i do what i love and i love what i do i am a desigineer all my work has been about how machines can become more and more like us rather than we becoming more like machineswhy are the artificial humans called neonthe word neon derives from neo new human the naming of neon is also inspired from the properties of neon as a noble gas neon ne the tenth element on the periodic table is an inert gas that glows orangered when electrically chargedso how different is a neon from an alexa unlike ai assistants neons are not an interface to the internet to ask for weather updates or play your favourite music rather they are more like virtual living beings who can show emotions and learn from experiences neons are more like our friends and companions with whom you share your experiences and build memories since neons are artificial humans that are capable of understanding conversing and sympathising just like real humans they can serve as an individualised teacher a personal financial advisor a healthcare provider or a concierge a neon can also be an actor a spokesperson or a tv anchorsome reviews have called the innovation overhyped your reactionwe believe much of the confusion arose since some people thought this was the