Aloft Hotels is already supplementing its human staff (i.e., reducing it) with robots that deliver sundries, and now a theme-park lodging opening in Nagasaki in July is going a step further in injecting silicon into its system, employing Weak AI to do all the grunt work, from robotic arms in the cloak room to facial recognition “keys” for room doors to android receptionists at the front desk. From the Japan Times:

NAGASAKI – A hotel with robot staff and face recognition instead of room keys will open this summer in Huis Ten Bosch in Nagasaki Prefecture, the operator of the theme park said Tuesday.

The two-story Henn na Hotel is scheduled to open July 17. It will be promoted with the slogan “A Commitment for Evolution,” Huis Ten Bosch Co. said.

The name reflects how the hotel will “change with cutting-edge technology,” a company official said. This is a play on words: “Henn” is also part of the Japanese word for change.

Robots will provide porter service, room cleaning, front desk and other services to reduce costs and to ensure comfort.

There will be facial recognition technology so guests can enter their rooms without a key.

“We will make the most efficient hotel in the world,” company President Hideo Sawada told a news conference. “In the future, we’d like to have more than 90 percent of hotel services operated by robots.”•