From automata to animate beings: the scope and limits of attributing socialness to artificial agents

Understanding the mechanisms and consequences of attributing socialness to artificial agents has important implications for how we can use technology to lead more productive and fulfilling lives. Here, we integrate recent findings on the factors that shape behavioral and brain mechanisms that support social interactions between humans and artificial agents. We review how visual features of an agent, as well as knowledge factors within the human observer, shape attributions across dimensions of socialness. We explore how anthropomorphism and dehumanization further influence how we perceive and interact with artificial agents. Based on these findings, we argue that the cognitive reconstruction within the human observer is likely to be far more crucial in shaping our interactions with artificial agents than previously thought, while the artificial agent's visual features are possibly of lesser importance. We combine these findings to provide an integrative theoretical account based on the “like me” hypothesis, and discuss the key role played by the Theory‐of‐Mind network, especially the temporal parietal junction, in the shift from mechanistic to social attributions. We conclude by highlighting outstanding questions on the impact of long‐term interactions with artificial agents on the behavioral and brain mechanisms of attributing socialness to these agents

Pets that Have ‘Something Inside’: The Material Politics of in/Animacy and Queer Kin within the Childhood Menagerie

In this paper, we seek to unsettle and extend understandings of what constitutes the contemporary family in Western minority world society and consider the material politics that follow from such a reconceptualization. We do this by offering a situated exploration into the caring relations and shared biographies that routinely evolve between children, other than human animals and toys within the family home. An emergent field of scholarship (Hohti and Tammi 2019; Taylor 2011; Malone 2015) reveals child–animal relations to be charged with various pedagogical and ideological assumptions, which we argue are partly exported to the relations that form between children and their toys. We undertake a close examination of the relationalities between humans and a range of toys as a means to explore the ways in which care and liveliness materialize in childhood play and what this means for our conceptualizations of ‘the family’. We put to work the idea of queer worlding (Haraway 2008; Osgood and Andersen 2019) and animacy (Chen 2012) alongside Puig de la Bellacasa’s (2017, 2011) feminist ethics of care. We then specifically focus on the materiality of robotic toys to illustrate some crucial connectivities and erasures to examine how the queer human–animal and animate–inanimate boundaries are reworked and negotiated in childhood play. These processes create a shift in understanding what matters in children’s lives and how materiality and affective forces co-constitute the posthuman family. This paper engages critically with the ambivalences and tensions that emerge within the domestic menagerie and extend to a planetary scale in ways that are inherently political

Pets that Have ‘Something Inside’: The Material Politics of in/Animacy and Queer Kin within the Childhood Menagerie

In this paper, we seek to unsettle and extend understandings of what constitutes the contemporary family in Western minority world society and consider the material politics that follow from such a reconceptualization. We do this by offering a situated exploration into the caring relations and shared biographies that routinely evolve between children, other than human animals and toys within the family home. An emergent field of scholarship (Hohti and Tammi 2019; Taylor 2011; Malone 2015) reveals child–animal relations to be charged with various pedagogical and ideological assumptions, which we argue are partly exported to the relations that form between children and their toys. We undertake a close examination of the relationalities between humans and a range of toys as a means to explore the ways in which care and liveliness materialize in childhood play and what this means for our conceptualizations of ‘the family’. We put to work the idea of queer worlding (Haraway 2008; Osgood and Andersen 2019) and animacy (Chen 2012) alongside Puig de la Bellacasa’s (2017, 2011) feminist ethics of care. We then specifically focus on the materiality of robotic toys to illustrate some crucial connectivities and erasures to examine how the queer human–animal and animate–inanimate boundaries are reworked and negotiated in childhood play. These processes create a shift in understanding what matters in children’s lives and how materiality and affective forces co-constitute the posthuman family. This paper engages critically with the ambivalences and tensions that emerge within the domestic menagerie and extend to a planetary scale in ways that are inherently political

Pets that have ‘something inside’: the material politics of in/animacy and queer kin within the childhood menagerie

In this paper, we seek to unsettle and extend understandings of what constitutes the contemporary family in Western minority world society and consider the material politics that follow from such a reconceptualization. We do this by offering a situated exploration into the caring relations and shared biographies that routinely evolve between children, other than human animals and toys within the family home. An emergent field of scholarship (Hohti and Tammi 2019; Taylor 2011; Malone 2015) reveals child−animal relations to be charged with various pedagogical and ideological assumptions, which we argue are partly exported to the relations that form between children and their toys. We undertake a close examination of the relationalities between humans and a range of toys as a means to explore the ways in which care and liveliness materialize in childhood play and what this means for our conceptualizations of ‘the family’. We put to work the idea of queer worlding (Haraway 2008; Osgood and Andersen 2019) and animacy (Chen 2012) alongside Puig de la Bellacasa’s (2017, 2011) feminist ethics of care. We then specifically focus on the materiality of robotic toys to illustrate some crucial connectivities and erasures to examine how the queer human−animal and animate−inanimate boundaries are reworked and negotiated in childhood play. These processes create a shift in understanding what matters in children’s lives and how materiality and affective forces co-constitute the posthuman family. This paper engages critically with the ambivalences and tensions that emerge within the domestic menagerie and extend to a planetary scale in ways that are inherently political

Children's perception and interpretation of robots and robot behaviour

The world of robotics, like that of all technology is changing rapidly (Melson, et al., 2009). As part of an inter-disciplinary project investigating the emergence of artificial culture in robot societies, this study set out to examine children’s perception of robots and interpretation of robot behaviour. This thesis is situated in an interdisciplinary field of human–robot interactions, drawing on research from the disciplines of sociology and psychology as well as the fields of engineering and ethics. The study was divided into four phases: phase one involved children from two primary schools drawing a picture and writing a story about their robot. In phase two, children observed e-puck robots interacting. Children were asked questions regarding the function and purpose of the robots’ actions. Phase three entailed data collection at a public event: Manchester Science Festival. Three activities at the festival: ‘XRay Art Under Your Skin’, ‘Swarm Robots’ and ‘Build-a-Bugbot’ formed the focus of this phase. In the first activity, children were asked to draw the components of a robot and were then asked questions about their drawings. During the second exercise, children’s comments were noted as they watched e-puck robot demonstrations. In the third exercise, children were shown images and asked whether these images were a robot or a ‘no-bot’. They were then prompted to provide explanations for their answers. Phase 4 of the research involved children identifying patterns of behaviour amongst e-pucks. This phase of the project was undertaken as a pilot for the ‘open science’ approach to research to be used by the wider project within which this PhD was nested. Consistent with existing literature, children endowed robots with animate and inanimate characteristics holding multiple understandings of robots simultaneously. The notion of control appeared to be important in children’s conception of animacy. The results indicated children’s perceptions of the location of the locus of control plays an important role in whether they view robots as autonomous agents or controllable entities. The ways in which children perceive robots and robot behaviour, in particular the ways in which children give meaning to robots and robot behaviour will potentially come to characterise a particular generation. Therefore, research should not only concentrate on the impact of these technologies on children but should focus on capturing children’s perceptions and viewpoints to better understand the impact of the changing technological world on the lives of children

The distracted robot: what happens when artificial agents behave like us

In everyday life, we are frequently exposed to different smart technologies. From our smartphones to avatars in computer games, and soon perhaps humanoid robots, we are surrounded by artificial agents created to interact with us. Already during the design phase of an artificial agent, engineers often endow it with functions aimed to promote the interaction and engagement with it, ranging from its \u201ccommunicative\u201d abilities to the movements it produces. Still, whether an artificial agent that can behave like a human could boost the spontaneity and naturalness of interaction is still an open question. Even during the interaction with conspecifics, humans rely partially on motion cues when they need to infer the mental states underpinning behavior. Similar processes may be activated during the interaction with embodied artificial agents, such as humanoid robots. At the same time, a humanoid robot that can faithfully reproduce human-like behavior may undermine the interaction, causing a shift in attribution: from being endearing to being uncanny. Furthermore, it is still not clear whether individual biases and prior knowledge related to artificial agents can override perceptual evidence of human-like traits. A relatively new area of research emerged in the context of investigating individuals\u2019 reactions towards robots, widely referred to as Human-Robot Interaction (HRI). HRI is a multidisciplinary community that comprises psychologists, neuroscientists, philosophers as well as roboticists, and engineers. However, HRI research has been often based on explicit measures (i.e. self-report questionnaires, a-posteriori interviews), while more implicit social cognitive processes that are elicited during the interaction with artificial agents took second place behind more qualitative and anecdotal results. The present work aims to demonstrate the usefulness of combining the systematic approach of cognitive neuroscience with HRI paradigms to further investigate social cognition processes evoked by artificial agents. Thus, this thesis aimed at exploring human sensitivity to anthropomorphic characteristics of a humanoid robot's (i.e. iCub robot) behavior, based on motion cues, under different conditions of prior knowledge. To meet this aim, we manipulated the human-likeness of the behaviors displayed by the robot and the explicitness of instructions provided to the participants, in both screen-based and real-time interaction scenarios. Furthermore, we explored some of the individual differences that affect general attitudes towards robots, and the attribution of human-likeness consequently

Measuring Human-Robot Interaction Through Motor Resonance

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What do Collaborations with the Arts Have to Say About Human-Robot Interaction?

This is a collection of papers presented at the workshop What Do Collaborations with the Arts Have to Say About HRI , held at the 2010 Human-Robot Interaction Conference, in Osaka, Japan

The Irresistible Animacy of Lively Artefacts

This thesis explores the perception of ‘liveliness’, or ‘animacy’, in robotically driven artefacts. This perception is irresistible, pervasive, aesthetically potent and poorly understood. I argue that the Cartesian rationalist tendencies of robotic and artificial intelligence research cultures, and associated cognitivist theories of mind, fail to acknowledge the perceptual and instinctual emotional affects that lively artefacts elicit. The thesis examines how we see artefacts with particular qualities of motion to be alive, and asks what notions of cognition can explain these perceptions. ‘Irresistible Animacy’ is our human tendency to be drawn to the primitive and strangely thrilling nature of experiencing lively artefacts. I have two research methodologies; one is interdisciplinary scholarship and the other is my artistic practice of building lively artefacts. I have developed an approach that draws on first-order cybernetics’ central animating principle of feedback-control, and second-order cybernetics’ concerns with cognition. The foundations of this approach are based upon practices of machine making to embody and perform animate behaviour, both as scientific and artistic pursuits. These have inspired embodied, embedded, enactive, and extended notions of cognition. I have developed an understanding using a theoretical framework, drawing upon literature on visual perception, behavioural and social psychology, puppetry, animation, cybernetics, robotics, interaction and aesthetics. I take as a starting point, the understanding that the visual cortex of the vertebrate eye includes active feature-detection for animate agents in our environment, and actively constructs the causal and social structure of this environment. I suggest perceptual ambiguity is at the centre of all animated art forms. Ambiguity encourages natural curiosity and interactive participation. It also elicits complex visceral qualities of presence and the uncanny. In the making of my own Lively Artefacts, I demonstrate a series of different approaches including the use of abstraction, artificial life algorithms, and reactive techniques

Designing a robot to evaluate group formations

Robots are making their way in environments inhabited by people. Whether in domestic or public crowded environments, robots should take into consideration social norms and behaviors in order to become a social robot. This dissertation focuses on the problem of how to develop a robotic platform in order to validate human-robot interaction experiences in realistic environments. More specifically, we are concerned with social interactions in human-robot groups in public scenarios, where a variety of people can converge. Our final goal is the develop of a social robot based on certain theories of group behavior and the use of space, known as spatial relationships. The intermediate goals are related with the design and development of the experiences in the wild: as minor changes as possible in the scenario, definition of social tasks, gradual development of a robotic platform as transparent as possible from the robotic side. Initially, this research introduces several preliminary studies of human-robot interaction (HRI) with the PAL Robotics’ REEM robot at the CosmoCaixa Science Museum in Barcelona. Based on certain theories about the use of space as a form of social communication or interaction, the task under study with the commercial robot is as a museum guide, both when the group was in motion (\ie when it was being guided) as well as a group in a static place. Moreover, a second HRI study with REEM robot accomplishing the task of a teacher's assistant was carried out to analyze the perception of the robot's social presence and identity. Likewise, the development of a robotic platform, known as MASHI, for the study of HRI is presented. Based on the service to be completed by the robot, improvements in the experimental robotic platform (structure, morphology, head, face, arms) were carried out in continuous cycles following the development of HRI experiences. This structure should be hold as simple as possible in order to make it `transparent' in the social HRI study. Next, the field study of human-robot social interaction with the MASHI robot with the role of exhibition guide in a cultural center is presented. Based on direct observation techniques, a study is made of the different spatial relationships that are generated when a robot interacts with a person or groups of people. Finally, a novel approach to represent the spatial relationships of HRI in a qualitative way is introduced for future experiences. In this concluding study, we analyze different spatial arrangements generated in a social scenario with a robot within the guide role. As a main conclusion, it can be stated that people follow social norms, in the form of spatial relationships, when interacting with a robot that provide a social service in a public space. Children, however, recurrently challenge these social norms, probably because they are constantly learning about the norms that regulate our coexistence. Spatial relationships are clearly reinforced when the role assigned to the robot is more explicit and understood by people. Spatial relationships can be affected by the characteristics of the environment, either by the available space or by the elements arranged in it, as well as by the number of people who inhabit it. Overall, this dissertation points out that the provided service, and its understanding from the user’s side, is more important that the robotic skills of the robotic platform in order to improve user experiences in public environments.Los robots se abren paso en entornos habitados por personas. Ya sea en entornos domésticos o públicos, los robots deben tener en cuenta ciertas normas y comportamientos sociales para convertirse en un robot social. Esta disertación se centra en el problema de cómo desarrollar una plataforma robótica para validar experiencias de interacción humano-robot en entornos realistas. Más específicamente, nos preocupamos por las interacciones sociales en grupos humano-robot en escenarios públicos, donde una gran variedad de personas puede converger. Nuestro objetivo final es el desarrollo de un robot social basado en ciertas teorías de comportamiento grupal y el uso del espacio, conocidas como relaciones espaciales. Los objetivos intermedios están relacionados con el diseño y desarrollo de las experiencias `en la naturaleza': cambios mínimos como sea posible en el escenario, definición de tareas sociales, desarrollo gradual de una plataforma robótica lo más transparente posible desde el lado robótico. Inicialmente, esta investigación presenta varios estudios preliminares de interacción humano-robot (HRI) con el robot REEM de PAL Robotics en el Museo de Ciencias CosmoCaixa de Barcelona. Basado en ciertas teorías sobre el uso del espacio como una forma de comunicación o interacción social, la tarea en este estudio con el robot comercial es como guía de museo, tanto cuando el grupo estaba en movimiento (es decir, cuando estaba siendo guiado) como cuando el grupo estaba en un lugar estático. Además, se llevó a cabo un segundo estudio de HRI con un robot REEM que realizaba la tarea de un asistente de profesor para analizar la percepción de la presencia e identidad social del robot. Asimismo, se presenta el desarrollo de una plataforma robótica, conocida como MASHI, para el estudio de la HRI. En función del servicio que debe completar el robot, las mejoras en la plataforma robótica experimental (estructura, morfología, cabeza, cara, brazos) se llevaron a cabo en ciclos continuos siguiendo el desarrollo de las experiencias de HRI. Esta estructura debe mantenerse lo más simple posible para que sea 'transparente' en el estudio de HRI social. A continuación, se presenta el estudio de campo de la interacción social humano-robot con el robot MASHI con el papel de guía de exposición en un centro cultural. Con base en técnicas de observación directa, se realiza un estudio de las diferentes relaciones espaciales que se generan cuando un robot interactúa con una persona o grupos de personas. Finalmente, se introduce un enfoque novedoso para representar las relaciones espaciales de la HRI de forma cualitativa para las experiencias futuras. En este estudio final, analizamos diferentes arreglos espaciales generados en un escenario social con un robot con el rol de guía. Como conclusión principal, se puede afirmar que las personas siguen normas sociales, en forma de relaciones espaciales, cuando interactúan con un robot que brinda un servicio social en un espacio público. Los niños, sin embargo, desafían recurrentemente estas normas sociales, probablemente porque están aprendiendo constantemente sobre las normas que regulan nuestra convivencia. Las relaciones espaciales se refuerzan claramente cuando el rol asignado al robot es más explícito y entendido por las personas. Las relaciones espaciales pueden verse afectadas por las características del entorno, ya sea por el espacio disponible o por los elementos dispuestos en él, así como por el número de personas que lo habitan. En general, esta disertación señala que el servicio prestado, y su comprensión del lado del usuario, es más importante que las habilidades robóticas de la plataforma robótica con el fin de mejorar las experiencias del usuario en entornos público