Pepper the robot, Sprint’s new hire, can read feelings

Sprint’s (NYSE:S) latest customer relations employee is a robot.  Sprint has started to use Pepper, a four-foot tall humanoid robot, to assist customers at the telecommunications company’s retail stores.

“Pepper is a great member of our staff and we deploy Pepper right now to our retail stores at Sprint and Pepper actually is a robot that can manage to read the mood of our customers by using its sensors.  So, Pepper sees and reads if people are happy or if people are angry and can act accordingly,” Sprint Business President Jan Geldmacher told FOX Business’ Ashley Webster on “Varney & Co.”

According to Geldmacher, Pepper is the latest tool in the expanding world of the Internet of Things.

“So, it’s very exciting to work with Pepper as a great example of how IoT, the Internet of Things, comes to life.”

After getting its start in Japan, Pepper is now in the U.S. as well, being deployed to Sprint’s retail stores.

“Pepper is a tool that is powered with artificial intelligence.  It’s produced by our parent company SoftBank and SoftBank Robotics has deployed Pepper in Japan first and now we’ve entered into the U.S. market and sell it to our customers as well.”

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) co-founder Bill Gates and Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk have warned about robots, but Geldmacher reassured that we shouldn’t be scared about Pepper.

“No fear, Pepper is a friendly robot,” according to Geldmacher.