big blue

International Business Machines Corporation, as Slashdot reports, has announced it will be deploying its Artificial Intelligence Watson along with German astronaut Alexander Gerst in June for a six month long mission to the International Space Station to act as a personal assistant and companion to its human counterparts—and definitely not refuse to open the pod bay doors.
In order to make the Crew Interactive Mobile Companion (CIMON) more relatable and not a disembodied voice, the neural network and personality will be contained within a housing described as a hoovering volley ball with a digital face, not unlike Tom Hanks’ Castaway co-star Wilson—and is being developed by Airbus on behalf of the German Aerospace Centre (das Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt).