HRI 2010 panels

Abstract

Robots are becoming part of people's everyday social lives — and will increasingly become so. In future years, robots may become caretaking assistants for the elderly, or academic tutors for our children, or medical assistants, day care assistants, or psychological counselors. Robots may become our co-workers in factories and offices, or maids in our homes. They may become our friends. As we move to create our future with robots, hard problems in HRI exist, both technically and socially. The Fifth Annual Conference on HRI seeks to take up grand technical and social challenges in the field — and speak to their integration. This panel brings together 4 leading experts in the field of HRI to speak on this topic. At the 2008 ACM/IEEE Conference on HumanRobot Interaction, a provocative panel was held to discuss the complicated ethical issues that abound in the field of human-robot interaction. The panel members and the audience participation made it clear that the HRI community desires — indeed, is in need of — an ongoing discussion on the nature of social responsibility in the field of humanrobot interaction. At the 2010 Conference, we will hold a panel on the issues of social responsibility in HRI, focusing on the unique features of robotic interaction that call for responsible action (e.g., value-specific domains such as autonomy, accountability, trust, and/or human dignity; and application areas such as military applications, domestic care, entertainment, and/or communication). As a young and rapidly growing field, we have a responsibility to conduct our research in such a way that it leads to humanrobot interaction outcomes that promote rather than hinder the flourishing of humans across society. What does social responsibility within the HRI field look like, and how do we conduct our work while adhering to such an obligation? The panelists will be asked to address this and related questions as a means of continuing an ongoing conversation on social responsibility in human-robot interaction.