Monday, February 25, 2019

De toekomst van robots

Vanavond zou ik een presentatie houden over de toekomst van robots tijdens de allerlaatste SMC050 in Groningen. Helaas ben ik verhinderd en kan ik mijn verhaal niet live vertellen. Echter: in dit filmpje leg ik aan de hand van de onderstaande vier slides in 7 minuten uit welke twee ideeën wat mij betreft centraal staan in de toekomst van robots:











Thursday, February 7, 2019

The promise and perils of social robots





On Friday February 8 (from 12.15-13.15) I moderated a panel discussion about "The promise and perils of social robots" at Etmaal 2019.

Panelists were: dr. Pim Haselager (Radboud University), prof. dr. Elly Konijn (VU), prof. dr. Jochen Peter (UvA) and prof. dr. Nicole Krämer (University of Duisburg-Essen).

We had a very lively panel discussion. Click on the link below to listen to a recording of the panel discussion:


Main questions we discussed:

What behaviour should a robot show to make us believe it has a mind?
What is needed to make robots engaging interaction partners?
To what extent can robots fulfill our social and emotional needs?
How desirable is it to use robots as a substitute for human companionship?

I asked the four panelists to come with their own statement on social robots:

Pim Haselager: “Human-robot interaction will remain a struggle for a long time”

Elly Konijn: “Robots make a more human approach possible in the public domain: healthcare, education, service” 

Nicole Krämer: “When trying to implement dialogue in social robots, we learn about the wonderful, inimitable communication abilities of humans” 

Jochen Peter: “Whether we like it or not, social robots will in the long run change how we relate and communicate with each other”