Podcast – Page 3 – Human Robot Interaction

The ACE Controversy: Sex, Robots, and Politics

This episode tells the story of the infamous ACE2018 conference.

If these are not enough publicity buzz words, then I do not know what is. In this episode we will look at the epic events around the Advances in Computer Entertainment (ACE 2018) conference and the associated Love And Sex With Robots Congress. The conferences had to be cancelled following a backlash from academics around the conferences’ organisation and in particular in response to the invitation of Steve Bannon as a keynote speaker to the ACE conference. I interviewed Adrian Cheok, David Levy and Yorim Chisik about the drama that unfolded last year. Adrian is now running for office in the Australian elections for the right wing Fraser Anning’s Conservative National Party.

ISSN 2703-4054

Important links:

The ACE2018 conference website (from the Internet Archive)
Statement by Yoram Chisik Regarding ACE 2018
Love And Sex With Robots 2018
Wired reported on the events
Adrian Cheok’s full CV
Omics Journals (Lovotics, Advances in Robotics & Automation)
Adrian Cheok is running in the Australian elections

Advise for the young at heart

What advice would you give to your younger self?

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Completing a PhD is a major accomplishment but it is only the start of an academic career. A study by The Royal Society found that only 3.5% of students that complete a PhD secure a permanent research position at a university. Of those lucky few, only 12% (or 0.45% of the total) make it to professor level. Those lucky few that make it must surely have some wisdom to share. I asked academics in HRI what advice they would give their younger selves. While talking to Rob Sparrow, Alan Wagner, Mari Velonaki, Guy Hoffman, Kimmo Vanni, Amit Kumar Pandey, and Franziska Kirstein about their careers certain patterns emerged. Perseverance, focus, patience and luck are amongst the factors that influenced their academic careers.

ISSN 2703-4054

Relevant links:

Art in Human-Robot Interaction

What and how does art contribute to HRI?

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Many disciplines contribute to the success of human-robot interaction. Computer scientists and psychologist are amongst the most frequent contributors, but their contributions are not necessarily the most interesting ones. Today we are going to discuss what and how art can contribute to human-robot interaction. Robots have been used in the theater, exhibitions, comics and music, to name just a few. Getting them into the limelight does take various skills. Team work is often a challenge, but collaborating across disciplines adds a layer of complexity to the dynamics. I talked with Mari Velonaki, Guy Hoffman, and David St-Onge about art and its relationship to HRI.

Transcript

The transcript of the episode is available as a PDF. You can also follow the episode with subtitles through Descript.

HRI-Podcast-Episode-006-Human-Robot-Interaction-Art-Transcript

ISSN 2703-4054

Relevant links:

Robots and Racism

Why are robots subject to racial and gender bias?

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Racism is a major problem in our society and it is an issue from which the HRI community cannot shy away from. Several studies showed that people transfer their racial biases onto robots. In this episode we will talk about these difficult topics of racism and sexism. My guest are Kumar Yogeeswaran, Friederike Eyssel and Megan Strait. They all work on racism among humans and towards robots. Besides identifying the biases we also talk about how and if robots might be able to help reducing them.

Transcript

The transcript of the episode is available as a PDF. You can also follow the episode with subtitles through Descript.

HRI-Podcast-Episode-005-Robots-And-Racism-Transcript

ISSN 2703-4054

Relevant links

Social categorization of social robots: Anthropomorphism as a function of robot group membership by Friederike Eyssel and Dieta Kuchenbrandt
Robots Racialized in the Likeness of Marginalized Social Identities are Subject to Greater Dehumanization than those racialized as White by Megan Strait, Ana Sánchez Ramos, Virginia Contreras, Noemi Garcia
Robots and racism by Christoph Bartneck, Kumar Yogeeswaran, Qi Min Ser, Graeme Woodward, Robert Sparrow, Siheng Wang, Friederike Eyssel

Addendum

In an earlier version of this post the work of Megan Strait on racism among humans and towards robots was described as “extensive”. Upon Megan’s request the qualifier “extensive” was removed.

Megan Strait would like to also note that:

I do not endorse the idea of using robots to reduce bias, as I do not find the premise to respect existing understanding and literature. If racism were readily solvable via intergroup exposure, there would not be such movement on “AI ethics” as is readily apparent in the discourse of mainstream media. With respect to combatting racism, my perspective is that robots have potential value in the role they could play in moderating of social dynamics (see, for example, Campos, Martinho, & Paiva 2018, Hoffman, Zuckerman, Hirschberger, & Shani-Sherman 2015, and Martelaro, Jung, & Hinds 2015). Applications in this manner have particular potential to address social inequities (e.g., the placement of responsibility largely on people of color to combat manifestations of racism). But that does not specifically serve toward attenuating individual and institutional bias.

Being a PHD student in HRI

A discussion about being a PhD student in the field of HRI and what happens afterwards.

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Most research at universities is done by PhD students. They are an essential part in the progress of science. The relationship between a PhD student and his or her supervisor is not unlike a marriage as Jorge Cham pointed out. It lasts for a couple of years, starts with a proposal, and culminates in a ceremony where you walk down the aisle dressed in a gown. Naïve young people enter, and around 50% end up in bitter remorse. In today’s special episode I talk to three of my former PhD students, Omar Mubin, Eduardo Sandoval, and Jakub Zlotowski, whom I met at a conference in Sydney. We talk about live during and after a PhD.

ISSN 2703-4054

Relevant Links

The Scientific Century: securing our future prosperity by The Royal Commision
The future of the postdoc by Kendall Powell
Marriage vs. the PhD by Jorge Cham

Aldebaran Or How To Sell A Robot

Developing and selling a social robot is challenging and many companies have failed.

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The business of creating and selling social robots is risky. Many companies have tried to sell social robots and only few have succeeded to sustain their business over a longer period of time. Aldebaran, or Softbank Robotics, as it is known today, is one of the biggest companies selling social robots to human-robot interaction researchers. Their Nao and Pepper robots are being widely used in the research community. I had the chance to talk with Amit Kumar Pandey, the head principal scientist at Softbank Robotics and Franziska Kirstein from Blue Ocean Robotics about how they develop robots.

ISSN 2703-4054

Relevant Links:

Autonomous Vehicles – Legal Concerns

The legal concerns about liability in crashes with autonomous vehicles are a main obstacle in the deployment of this technology.

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We continue our discussion on autonomous vehicles and focus in this episode on the legal aspects. In particular the issues around liability are a major obstacle for the wide adoption of autonomous vehicles. Who will be responsible for damages caused by auto pilots? Will it be the driver, the manufacturer of the car or maybe even the car itself? I talked with Professor Tracy Hresko Pearl, Professor Ryan Calo and Professor Alan R. Wagner about what needs to happen in our legal system to be able to deal with the liability around autonomous vehicles.

Autonomous Vehicles – The Future Of Transportation

Autonomous vehicles will change the future of transportation. We will discuss the ethical implications.

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Autonomous vehicles are one of the most interesting topics in human-robot interaction right now. While they are not humanoid in shape, they are one of the biggest, deadliest and most promising robots available to the general public. They have the potential to dramatically change how we get from point a to b and what infrastructure we need. But they also raises many ethical issues besides a long list of technical challenges.

Driving a car is inherently dangerous once you drive at a practical speed. Your autonomous vehicle needs to be able to deal with all sorts of traffic situations, weather conditions and even unpredictable human operators. This is an enormous challenge.

I talked with Professor Robert Sparrow from the Monarch University, Professor Tracy Hresko Pearl and Professor Alan R. Wagner about the future of transportation with autonomous vehicles. The core question is: when will it become illegal for humans to drive cars?

Transcript

The transcript of the episode is available as a PDF. You can also follow the episode with subtitles through Descript.

HRI-Podcast-Episode-001-Autonomous-Vehicles-Future-Transportation-Transcript