Robophilosophy 2024 took place for three and a half days in Aarhus (Denmark). It is a biennial dedicated to social robotics. Alongside the ICSR, it is the most important conference in this field. The program was again very extensive. Workshops were held and presentations given in four different tracks. There were keynotes and plenary sessions by well-known names, from Wendell Wallach to Hiroshi Ishiguro. After a sunny start, it began to rain, which made it all the easier to concentrate on the scientific exchange. In the end, the sun came out again in time for the closing event. Johanna Seibt, the brains behind Robophilosophy, received a bouquet of flowers and a standing ovation. The experts will meet again in two years‘ time. Where has not yet been decided. A few potential hosts spoke up. Edinburgh would be an option, but so would California.
On the fourth day of Robophilosophy 2024, Hiroshi Ishiguro, Professor at the Department of Systems Innovation in the Graduate School of Engineering Science at Osaka University, gave a talk entitled „AI Avatars and the Future Society“. From the abstract: „In this lecture, the presenter will report on the research and development of remotely operated robots and CG agents, also known as avatars. Avatar technology has advanced significantly in recent years, thanks to progress in AI technology. We will discuss the various services that can be deployed using avatars and the kind of society we can realize as a result.“ (Website Robophilosophy 2024) After the lecture, the roboticist was questioned by Raja Chatila, Sorbonne University (France), and Mihaela Constantinescu, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Bucharest (Romania). Hiroshi Ishiguro had been a regular guest at Robophilosophy. In 2018, he appeared on site in Vienna.
On the fourth day of Robophilosophy 2024, Oliver Bendel, Professor at the FHNW School of Business, gave a talk entitled „The Universal Robot of the 21st Century“. From the abstract: „Developments in several areas of computer science, robotics, and social robotics make it seem likely that a universal robot will be available for the mass market in the foreseeable future. Large language models for communication, perception, and control play a central role in this. This article briefly outlines the developments in the various areas and uses them to create the overall image of the universal robot. It then discusses the associated challenges from an ethical and social science perspective. It can be said that the universal robot will bring with it new possibilities and will perhaps be one of the most powerful human tools in physical space. At the same time, numerous problems are foreseeable, individual, social, and ecological.“ (Website Robophilosophy 2024) This was followed by an intensive plenary discussion on the design and usefulness of universal robots. In an individual discussion, Oliver Bendel suggested designing universal robots like early humans or apes. They can move on all fours, but can also stand up on two legs if the situation requires it. This would at least solve some of the safety problems posed by bipeds.
Fig.: Oliver Bendel after his talk (Photo: Katharina Kühne)
The Robophilosophy community consists of philosophers, psychologists, roboticists, and representatives of other disciplines. It is a tradition for everyone to come together for a social event to get new inspiration and chat about their work and motivation in an informal atmosphere. This time, they attended a robot performance in the theater on the second day. On the third day, the conference dinner was held together in the rooftop restaurant of the AROS Art Museum. One of the highlights was the tour of the ninth floor. The Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson has created Your rainbow panorama which was officially opened in May 2011. You can see Aarhus with its church towers, residential buildings, streets, and people through the colorful panes. Afterwards, the tireless went out into the city’s nightlife.
The third day of Robophilosophy 2024 featured numerous presentations and several workshops. The workshop „The Social Significance of Human Effort – What Are the Parameters For Positive Human-Robot Interaction In the Context of Industry 5.0?“ was organized by the renowned Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies (Pisa, Italy). The moderators were Professors Alberto Pirni and Paolo Dario as well as Oliver Bendel from the FHNW School of Business. They also presented, as did other participants such as Nicola Vitiello, Leonardo Massantini, Danica Kragic Jensfelt, and Margherita Pugnaletto. From the workshop abstract: „This workshop aims to develop a roadmap for understanding the impact of robotics on human employment within the context of Industry 5.0. The workshop explores key factors in this transition, including the risks and benefits of digital automation, ethical considerations regarding worker skills and well-being, and protective measures for workers and consumers. Focusing on the theme of sociocultural risks: devaluation of human labor, the workshop aims to reflect on traditional notions of work, productivity, and the value of human labor in the era of advancing robotics and automation. It challenges the concept of labor devaluation, assesses its impact on worker recognition and efficiency, and questions meritocratic paradigms. To facilitate interdisciplinary dialogue, the workshop engages philosophers and engineers in addressing ethical dilemmas in technology development. It explores the social significance of human effort and movement when interacting with autonomous robots and occupational exoskeletons. By examining these technologies‘ adaptability and role in human-machine interaction, especially in workplaces, the workshop intends to contribute to discussions on technological advances and their societal implications.“ (Website Robophilosophy 2024)
On the second day of Robophilosophy 2024, Anthony Elliott, Distinguished Professor of Sociology at the University of South Australia, gave a keynote speech entitled „May AI Be With You: Agency and Automation in the Age of Algorithmic Modernity“. From the abstract: „From industrial robots to ChatGPT, and from driverless cars to military drones: AI is transforming all aspects of our lives, from the changing nature of work, employment and unemployment to the most intimate aspects of personal relationships. In this presentation, Anthony Elliott focuses on the complex systems of AI – spanning intelligent machines, chatbots, advanced robotics, accelerating automation, big data – and their centrality to new forms of social interaction, organizational life and governance. He argues, provocatively, that today modernity has come to mean smartphones, tablets, cloud computing, big data, automated recommendation systems and predictive analytics. This has heralded the arrival of what he terms ‚algorithmic modernity‘, an altogether new ’stage‘ in the ordering techniques of envisioned human mastery. In this automated order of algorithmic modernity, human agency is increasingly outsourced to smart machines. We should understand this phenomenon, Elliott argues, in terms of a containment of both uncertainty and complexity which the digital revolution in social relations poses, but which ultimately denies answers.“ (Website Robophilosophy 2024) In his presentation, the sociologist emphasised the risks of AI rather than the opportunities.
Fig.: Anthony Elliott before his lecture (seated far left; standing David Gunkel and Johanna Seibt))
On August 20, 2024, Robophilosophy 2024 was opened with words of welcome from Maja Horst, Dean of the Faculty of Arts at Aarhus University, and Johanna Seibt, Professor of the School of Culture and Society at Aarhus University. The website says: „The international research conference RP2024 will discuss the questions that really matter in view of the new technological potential of social robotics. In over 100 research talks, RP2024 will address concrete and deep issues that reach far beyond safety and privacy concerns into the conceptual and normative fabric of our societies and individual self-comprehension.“ (Website Robophilosophy 2024) The first keynote on the first day of the conference was given by Wendell Wallach, one of the world’s best-known machine ethicists. With his book „Moral Machines“ (2009), he laid the foundation for a discipline that has been developing in science fiction and science for years and decades. This was followed in 2011 by „Machine Ethics“ by Michael Anderson and Susan Leigh Anderson. In addition to machine ethics, Robophilosophy is dedicated to robot ethics and other interesting perspectives on social robots.
Das Paper „Robots at arm’s length: Unveiling the dynamics of interpersonal distance preferences in human-robot interactions“ von Katharina Kühne, Laura M. Zimmer, Melina Jeglinski-Mende, Oliver Bendel, Yuefang Zhou und Martin Fischer wurde bei der Robophilosophy 2024 angenommen. In der Studie geht es um den räumlichen Abstand zwischen sozialen Robotern und Menschen. Nach Ansicht der Autoren wirken sich die Ergebnisse auf die Gestaltung von sozialen Robotern und die Optimierung von Interaktionen aus, insbesondere in pädagogischen oder medizinischen Kontexten. Katharina Kühne ist Doktorandin der Potsdam Embodied Cognition Group (PECoG) an der Universität Potsdam. Sie hat ein Diplom in Sprachunterricht, einen Master in Linguistik und einen Master in Kognitionspsychologie. Betreut wird sie von Prof. Dr. Martin Fischer (Universität Potsdam, Leiter der PECoG) und Prof. Dr. Oliver Bendel (Hochschule für Wirtschaft FHNW, assoziierter Forscher der PECoG). Der Ergebnisse der Studie werden bei der Robophilosophy vorgestellt, die vom 20. bis 23. August 2024 in Aarhus stattfindet.
Abb.: Zwei Pepper-Roboter bei einer Veranstaltung in Zürich
The upcoming international Robophilosophy Conference 2024 in Aarhus is set to tackle the socio-cultural and ethical questions arising from the use of generative multimodal AIs in social robotics. The event will bring together global scholars from humanities, social sciences, social robotics, and computer science, aiming to produce actionable insights and responsibly address the socio-cultural transformations brought about by social robotics. It is part of the Robophilosophy Conference Series, known for its large scale events for humanities research in social robotics. RP2024 highlights the urgency of closer collaboration between tech experts and societal experts to establish research-based regulations. The program committee includes Sherry Turkle (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Wendell Wallach (The Hastings Center), and Melanie Mitchell (Santa Fe Institute). Among the speakers is Oliver Bendel, who will present his accepted paper „The Universal Robot of the 21st Century“. He has been attending the conference without interruption since 2018.
Fig. A contradictory presentation of an all-purpose robot
The upcoming international Robophilosophy Conference 2024 in Aarhus is set to tackle the socio-cultural and ethical questions arising from the use of generative multimodal AIs in social robotics. The event will bring together global scholars from humanities, social sciences, social robotics, and computer science, aiming to produce actionable insights and responsibly address the socio-cultural transformations brought about by social robotics. It is part of the Robophilosophy Conference Series, known for its large scale events for humanities research in social robotics. RP2024 highlights the urgency of closer collaboration between tech experts and societal experts to establish research-based regulations. The conference will welcome 80-100 talks in plenaries, special workshops, and parallel sessions of reviewed research papers. Virtual attendance is made possible for those unable to attend in person. Interested parties are invited to submit their papers on the conference topics. Key dates to note: Deadline for workshop/panel proposal submissions is January 31, 2024. Deadline for short papers and posters is February 15, 2024. More information at cas.au.dk/en/robophilosophy/conferences/rpc2024.
„Once we place so-called ’social robots‘ into the social practices of our everyday lives and lifeworlds, we create complex, and possibly irreversible, interventions in the physical and semantic spaces of human culture and sociality. The long-term socio-cultural consequences of these interventions is currently impossible to gauge.“ (Website Robophilosophy Conference) With these words the next Robophilosophy conference is announced. It will take place from 18 to 21 August 2019 in Aarhus, Denmark. The CfP raises questions like that: „How can we create cultural dynamics with or through social robots that will not impact our value landscape negatively? How can we develop social robotics applications that are culturally sustainable? If cultural sustainability is relative to a community, what can we expect in a global robot market? Could we design human-robot interactions in ways that will positively cultivate the values we, or people anywhere, care about?“ (Website Robophilosophy Conference) In 2018 Hiroshi Ishiguro, Guy Standing, Catelijne Muller, Joanna Bryson, and Oliver Bendel had been keynote speakers. In 2020, Catrin Misselhorn, Selma Sabanovic, and Shannon Vallor will be presenting. More information via conferences.au.dk/robo-philosophy/.
