Effects of Victim Gendering and Humanness on People’s Responses to the Physical Abuse of Humanlike Agents

With the deployment of robots in public realms, researchers are seeing more cases of abusive disinhibition towards robots. Because robots embody gendered identities, poor navigation of antisocial dynamics may reinforce or exacerbate gender-based marginalization. Consequently, it is essential for robots to recognize and effectively head off abuse. Given extensions of gendered biases to robotic agents, as well as associations between an agent\u27s human likeness and the experiential capacity attributed to it, we quasi-manipulated the victim\u27s humanness (human vs. robot) and gendering (via the inclusion of stereotypically masculine vs. feminine cues in their presentation) across four video-recorded reproductions of the interaction. Analysis from 422 participants, each of whom watched one of the four videos, indicates that intensity of emotional distress felt by an observer is associated with their gender identification and support for social stratification, along with the victim\u27s gendering—further underscoring the criticality of robots\u27 social intelligence

Examining the Effects of Race on Human-AI Cooperation

Recent literature has shown that racism and implicit racial biases can affect one’s actions in major ways, from the time it takes police to decide whether they shoot an armed suspect, to a decision on whether to trust a stranger. Given that race is a social/power construct, artifacts can also be racialized, and these racialized agents have also been found to be treated differently based on their perceived race. We explored whether people’s decision to cooperate with an AI agent during a task (a modified version of the Stag hunt task) is affected by the knowledge that the AI agent was trained on a population of a particular race (Black, White, or a non-racialized control condition). These data show that White participants performed the best when the agent was racialized as White and not racialized at all, while Black participants achieved the highest score when the agent was racialized as Black. Qualitative data indicated that White participants were less likely to report that they believed that the AI agent was attempting to cooperate during the task and were more likely to report that they doubted the intelligence of the AI agent. This work suggests that racialization of AI agents, even if superficial and not explicitly related to the behavior of that agent, may result in different cooperation behavior with that agent, showing potentially insidious and pervasive effects of racism on the way people interact with AI agents

The Whiteness of AI

Abstract: This paper focuses on the fact that AI is predominantly portrayed as white—in colour, ethnicity, or both. We first illustrate the prevalent Whiteness of real and imagined intelligent machines in four categories: humanoid robots, chatbots and virtual assistants, stock images of AI, and portrayals of AI in film and television. We then offer three interpretations of the Whiteness of AI, drawing on critical race theory, particularly the idea of the White racial frame. First, we examine the extent to which this Whiteness might simply reflect the predominantly White milieus from which these artefacts arise. Second, we argue that to imagine machines that are intelligent, professional, or powerful is to imagine White machines because the White racial frame ascribes these attributes predominantly to White people. Third, we argue that AI racialised as White allows for a full erasure of people of colour from the White utopian imaginary. Finally, we examine potential consequences of the racialisation of AI, arguing it could exacerbate bias and misdirect concern

Robots Need the Ability to Navigate Abusive Interactions

Researchers are seeing more and more cases of abusive disinhibition towards robots in public realms. Because robots embody gendered identities, poor navigation of antisocial dynamics may reinforce or exacerbate gender-based violence. It is essential that robots deployed in social settings be able to recognize and respond to abuse in a way that minimises ethical risk. Enabling this capability requires designers to first understand the risk posed by abuse of robots, and hence how humans perceive robot-directed abuse. To that end, we experimentally investigated reactions to a physically abusive interaction between a human perpetrator and a victimized agent. Given extensions of gendered biases to robotic agents, as well as associations between an agent’s human likeness and the experiential capacity attributed to it, we quasi-manipulated the victim’s humanness (via use of a human actor vs. NAO robot) and gendering (via inclusion of stereotypically masculine vs. feminine cues in their presentation) across four video-recorded reproductions of the interaction. Analysis of data from 417 participants, each of whom watched one of the four videos, indicates that the intensity of emotional distress felt by an observer is associated with their gender identification, previous experience with victimization, hostile sexism, and support for social stratification, as well as the victim’s gendering

Deathscapes in Neoliberal Times: Prisonfare, Workfare and Resistance as Potential Outcomes for Black Youth

This paper defines and unpacks Loic Wacquant’s concepts of Workfare and Prisonfare, coupled with a discussion of Tendayi Sithole’s concept of Deathscapes and his appropriation of Achille Mbembe’s Necropolitics as to why urban schools are poverty storage facilities for black youth. I address the centrality of the states social and penal policies in the reconfiguration of urban schools under a death politic guided by the deployment of both a neoliberal-paternalism and antiblack racist methodology. I argue, through the creation of workfare and prisonfare those urban schools eradicate black existence by conditioning low-income black students for low-wage labor or the prison. Next, this paper examines reproduction theory in education. Reproduction theory in education in regards economics is an outdated model, that rests on the assumption of a lowskill labor market that poor white students are being prepared for working class blue collar jobs. Previous reproduction in education theories are insufficient to explain how the schooling experiences of black youth in a punitive neoliberal post-industrialize world relate to the production of social, political and economic inequality. As urban schools are producing criminal subjects in surplus not workers Lastly, I discuss the limitations and weaknesses of fighting for racial equality and radical transformation in our anti-black capitalist society. A Racial Realist framework advocated by Derrick Bell will ground my discussion on the possibilities for black youth resistance

¿Tramposo e injusto? entonces, es humano. Robots sociales educativos y ética sintética

Education begins to make use of emotional artificial intelligence through anthropomorphized educational robots. Evidence supports that students (men and women) are able to create emotional bonds with these agents. However, more and more cases of abusive disinhibition are being found in such interactions, such as racist or sexist degradation, abuse of power and violence. Some researchers warn about the negative consequences that this type of behavior can have in the long term, both for the ethical education of students and for robots that learn from these behaviors. Despite their relevance from a social and educational perspective, there are few studies that attempt to understand the mechanisms underlying these immoral or collectively harmful practices. The aim of this article is to review and analyze the research that has tried to study the unethical behavior of the human being through its interaction with anthropomorphic social robots. A descriptive bibliometric study was carried out following the criteria of the PRISMA declaration. The results show that, under certain circumstances, anthropomorphization and attribution of intentionality to robotic agents could be disadvantageous causing attitudes of rejection, dehumanization and even violence. However, a more realistic view of both the capabilities and limitations of these agents and the mechanisms that guide human behavior could help harness the great potential of this technology to promote students' moral development and ethical awareness.La educación comienza a hacer uso de la inteligencia artificial emocional a través de robots educativos antropomorfizados. La evidencia respalda que los estudiantes (hombres y mujeres) son capaces de crear vínculos emocionales con estos agentes. Sin embargo, cada vez se están encontrando más casos de desinhibición abusiva en este tipo de interacciones, como degradaciones racistas o sexistas, abuso de poder y violencia. Algunos investigadores alertan sobre las consecuencias negativas que este tipo de conductas pueden tener a largo plazo, tanto para la educación ética de los estudiantes como para los robots que aprenden de estas conductas. A pesar de su relevancia desde una perspectiva social y educativa, existen pocos estudios que intenten comprender los mecanismos que subyacen a estas prácticas inmorales o colectivamente dañinas. El objetivo de este artículo es revisar y analizar las investigaciones que han tratado de estudiar el comportamiento antiético del ser humano a través de su interacción con los robots sociales antropomórficos. Se realizó un estudio bibliométrico descriptivo siguiendo los criterios de la declaración PRISMA. Los resultados muestran que, bajo ciertas circunstancias, la antropomorfización y la atribución de intencionalidad a los agentes robóticos podría ser desventajosa, provocando actitudes de rechazo, deshumanización e incluso violencia. Sin embargo, una visión más realista tanto de las capacidades y limitaciones de estos agentes como de los mecanismos que guían la conducta humana podría ayudar a aprovechar el gran potencial de esta tecnología para promover el desarrollo moral y la conciencia ética de los estudiantes

From Recovery to Discovery: Ethnic American Science Fiction and (Re)Creating the Future

My project assesses how science fiction by writers of color challenges the scientific racism embedded in genetics, nuclear development, digital technology, and molecular biology, demonstrating how these fields are deployed disproportionately against people of color. By contextualizing current scientific development with its often overlooked history and exposing the full life cycle of scientific practices and technological changes, ethnic science fiction authors challenge science’s purported objectivity and make room for alternative scientific methods steeped in Indigenous epistemologies. The first chapter argues that genetics is deployed disproportionally against black Americans, from the pseudo-scientific racial classifications of the nineteenth century and earlier through the current obsession with racially tailored medicine and the human genome. I argue that the fiction of Octavia Butler, Tananarive Due, and Andrea Hairston reveals the continuing scientific racialization of black Americans and complicates questions of humanity that still rise from genetic typing and medical testing. Chapter 2 interrogates the nuclear cycle, revealing what has been erased—the mining of uranium on the Navajo Nation, nuclear testing on Paiute and Shoshone land in the United States, similar tests on Indigenous soil in Kazakhstan, and nuclear waste buried in the New Mexico and Texas deserts. I contend Leslie Marmon Silko, William Saunders, and Stephen Graham Jones reveal the destructive influence of the buried nuclear cycle on Indigenous people globally, as they posit an Indigenous scientific method with which to fight through their novels. The third chapter exposes how the Latina/o digital divide in the United States elides a more disturbing multinational divide between those who mine for, assemble, and recycle the products that create the digital era and those with access to those products. From mining for rare earth elements in the Congo to assembling electronics in Mexico’s maquiladoras and “recycling” used electronics across the developing world, the novels of Alejandro Morales, Rosaura Sánchez and Beatrice Pita, and Ernest Hogan reveal the hidden price of the digital world and demand representation—digital, scientific, and historical. Chapter 4 builds on current discussions of Alex Rivera’s film Sleep Dealer to argue that Chicana/o and Indigenous authored science fiction films reveal how the global harvesting of natural resources has expanded to include life itself and organisms’ interiors. Films and other visual productions by Robert Rodriguez, Reagan Gomez, Federico Heller, Jose Nestor Marquez, Rodrigo Hernández Cruz, and Nanobah Becker predict biocolonialism’s expansion as they create worlds reflecting current practices where life forms become no more than patented, mechanized resources for neocolonial capitalist production and consumption