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)
ACM Designing Interactive Systems 2024 (DIS 2024) will be held from 1-5 July 2024 at IT University, Copenhagen, Denmark. The Call for Papers for the Creative Robotics Theatre workshop is open to workshop papers, videos, pictorials, design explorations and performances. The roboticist and artist Hooman Samani is one of the organizers. He calls for participation on his website: „Join us at DIS 2024 for an innovative workshop exploring the confluence of robotics, theatre, and societal change. We are seeking artists, technologists, researchers, and practitioners interested in pushing the boundaries of Creative Robotics Theatre to enhance societal well-being and address global challenges.“ (Website Hooman Samani) Topics of interest include creative robotics theatre, robotics performance, embodied and tangible interfaces and performances, and performance with embodied objects. The deadline for submissions is 15 May 2024. Further information on the workshop is available at hoomansamani.com.
Fig.: The Little Mermaid sits on a rock at Langelinie Pier, Copenhagen
The CONVERSATIONS 2023, a two-day workshop on chatbot research, applications, and design, will take place at the University of Oslo, Norway. According to the CfP, contributions concerning applications of large language models such as the GPT family, are warmly welcome, as are contributions on applications combining information retrieval approaches and large language model approaches. Building on the results from previous six CONVERSATIONS workshops, the following topics are of particular interest: 1. Chatbot users and implications, 2. Chatbot user experience, design, and evaluation, 3. Chatbot frameworks and platforms, 4. Chatbots for collaboration, 5. Democratizing chatbots – chatbots for all, 6. Ethics and safety implications of chatbots and large language models, 7. Leveraging advances in AI technology and large language models. More information via 2023.conversations.ws.
The Ethics of Conversational User Interfaces workshop at the ACM CHI 2022 conference „will consolidate ethics-related research of the past and set the agenda for future CUI research on ethics going forward“. „This builds on previous CUI workshops exploring theories and methods, grand challenges and future design perspectives, and collaborative interactions.“ (CfP CUI) From the Call for Papers: „In what ways can we advance our research on conversational user interfaces (CUIs) by including considerations on ethics? As CUIs, like Amazon Alexa or chatbots, become commonplace, discussions on how they can be designed in an ethical manner or how they change our views on ethics of technology should be topics we engage with as a community.“ (CfP CUI) Paper submission deadline is 24 February 2022. The workshop is scheduled to take place in New Orleans on 21 April 2022. More information is available via www.conversationaluserinterfaces.org/workshops/CHI2022/.
In 2018, Dr. Yuefang Zhou and Prof. Dr. Martin Fischer initiated the first international workshop on intimate human-robot relations at the University of Potsdam, „which resulted in the publication of an edited book on developments in human-robot intimate relationships“. This year, Prof. Dr. Martin Fischer, Prof. Dr. Rebecca Lazarides, and Dr. Yuefang Zhou are organizing the second edition. „As interest in the topic of humanoid AI continues to grow, the scope of the workshop has widened. During this year’s workshop, international experts from a variety of different disciplines will share their insights on motivational, social and cognitive aspects of learning, with a focus on humanoid intelligent tutoring systems and social learning companions/robots.“ (Website Embracing AI) The international workshop „Learning from Humanoid AI: Motivational, Social & Cognitive Perspectives“ will take place on 29 and 30 November 2019 at the University of Potsdam. Keynote speakers are Prof. Dr. Tony Belpaeme, Prof. Dr. Oliver Bendel, Prof. Dr. Angelo Cangelosi, Dr. Gabriella Cortellessa, Dr. Kate Devlin, Prof. Dr. Verena Hafner, Dr. Nicolas Spatola, Dr. Jessica Szczuka, and Prof. Dr. Agnieszka Wykowska. Further information is available at embracingai.wordpress.com/.
Im Saal war noch ein gut gelaunter Guildo Horn (Podiumsteilnehmer bei „Wie schreibt man über Menschen mit Behinderungen?“), als die Referenten hereinkamen. Er begrüßte sie mit den Worten: „Jetzt kommen schon die Nächsten – hallo!“ Die Nächsten waren die Referenten des Workshops „Maschinenethik“, nämlich Oliver Bendel („Moral für Maschinen“) und Barbara Lenz („Autonome Autos“). Bendel von der Hochschule für Wirtschaft FHNW eröffnete am 17. November 2015 als Wissenschaftler den Workshop in Bremen und führte in die derzeit wohl meistdiskutierte Disziplin ein – und gestand, dass ihm die ganze Zeit das Lied „Guildo hat euch lieb“ des von ihm sehr geschätzten Sängers und Aktivisten durch den Kopf gehe. Lenz vom Deutschen Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR) vertiefte mit dem derzeit wohl meistgenannten Anwendungsbeispiel. Abgesagt hatte Frank Sauer, Universität der Bundeswehr München („Autonome Waffen“). Über eine halbe Stunde erstreckte sich ein lebhaftes Frage-Antwort-Spiel mit dem Moderator Ralf Krauter vom Deutschlandfunk, der den Referenten auch noch die letzten Geheimnisse (die natürlich längst publiziert waren) entlockte. Wie programmiert man moralische Maschinen? Was spricht für regelbasierte, was für fallbasierte Ansätze? Wieviel Autonomie soll der Mensch behalten? Was will die Wirtschaft, was die Wissenschaft? Die anwesenden Journalistinnen und Journalisten geizten anschließend nicht mit Fragen. Im Konferenzhotel Maritim ging es insgesamt trubelig zu im Rahmen der Veranstaltung „Wissenswerte“. In den Workshops redete man sich die Köpfe heiß über „Multimediales Storytelling“, „Science und Fiction“ und „Big Data in der Medizin“. Im Messebereich präsentierten sich die Partnerorganisationen, u.a. die Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, die Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, die Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft, die Leibniz-Gemeinschaft und der Stifterverband. Am frühen Abend war Franz Alt im Gespräch mit Lena Ganschow. Danach klang der Abend beim Essen im Friesenhof aus.
