Talk: AI-Robots Shaping Human Decisions

Robots that use AI systems have the capacity to interact with people as intelligent agents. This interaction becomes almost seamless when such robots process and use natural language to converse with individuals and utilize facial and bodily expressions to complement the conversation. As natural language processing, speech synthesis, and robot expressiveness develop further, we should expect AI-robots to ‘blend in’ to our normal course of life as companions and coaches among others. Such AI-robots present novel ethical questions regarding their communication of information. Decisions that determine how AI-robots communicate information will affect individuals’ knowledge formation, decision-making, and goal determination. A seamless integration to daily life requires these robots to prioritize a single response (in the form of voice answer or physical reaction) instead of presenting a long list of possible websites to check. That means, the AI-robots must determine how to present and engage with facts, politics, and morality (even if the decision is to avoid the question). Moreover, robot coaches—whether in health-, education-, or life-coaching—will have to go further and help individuals make decisions, set goals, and stick to these goals. Throughout all this process, questions regarding what makes a good (or acceptable) decision, a good goal, and a good process to achieve a goal comes into play as well as questions on the ethics of using nudges and manipulation to ‘help’ the individual.

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Talk Locations and Dates

Intelligent Robotics Laboratory (Ishiguro Lab), Osaka University:

December 10th, 2018, 9:00–10:30

Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International (ATR):

December 13th, 2018, 14:00–15:00

Emergent Robotics Laboratory (Asada Lab), Osaka University:

December 14th, 2018, 14:15–15:15