Katie Winkle is Digital Futures Postdoctoral Researcher, KTH Royal Institute of Technology

Abstract: Socially assistive robots are those which should provide some helpful function through their social interactions. This essentially represents social influence, such that we roboticists are designing AI-powered, socially persuasive robots that can induce some desirable behavior in users.

However, the design and automation of such robots represent both technical and ethical challenges and I will discuss both the tensions and opportunities that exist at their intersection.

In this context, I will draw on examples from my work ranging from the use of interactive machine learning as a tool for participatory design of AI through to social robot design as feminist activism.