Oliver Bendel, Author at ROBOPHILOSOPHY

January 20, 2023January 20, 2023

The HUGGIE Project II

A large survey on hugging robots was already conducted in 2020 (HUGGIE Project I). The results were published by Leonie Stocker, Ümmühan Korucu, and Oliver Bendel in the book chapter “In den Armen der Maschine” (“In the arms of the machine”) in the Springer volume “Soziale Roboter” (“Social Robots”) . In the summer of 2022, another project was announced at the School of Business FHNW, called HUGGIE Project II in distinction to the previous project. A team of four was recruited, with Andrea Puljic, Robin Heiz, Furkan Tömen, and Ivan De Paola. The task was to build and test a hugging robot called HUGGIE. In doing so, the results of HUGGIE Project I were to be used as a basis. In particular, it was to be determined whether a robotic hug contributes to well-being and health and whether voice and vibration as a simulation of the heartbeat as well as scent increase the acceptance of the hug by a robot. Thus, indications from the survey in HUGGIE Project I were included. Furthermore, hugs with a giant stuffed animal named Teddy took place for comparison. The results show that people benefit from robotic hugs and that these can increase their well-being and health as a result. There was clear evidence of this in the pretest, and still sufficient evidence in the main test. However, some already have an aversion to robotic hugs in their imagination – as HUGGIE Project I revealed – which in turn some also showed in reality (HUGGIE Project II). Warmth and softness of body and arms are important. This was already proven by the research of Alexis E. Block and Katherine J. Kuchenbecker. Voice, vibration, and scent were found to be less relevant. However, there is significant indication that a female voice can increase acceptance and therefore needs to be further explored and adapted in this context. The findings were summarized in a paper and submitted to an international conference (Photo: Furkan Tömen).

January 19, 2023January 19, 2023

The @ve Project

On January 19, 2023, the final presentation was held for the @ve project, which started in September 2022. The chatbot runs on the website www.ave-bot.ch and on Telegram. Like ChatGPT, it is based on GPT-3 from OpenAI (@ve is not GPT-3.5, but GPT-3.0). The project was initiated by Prof. Dr. Oliver Bendel, who wants to devote more time to dead, extinct, and endangered languages. @ve was developed by Karim N’diaye, who studied business informatics at the Hochschule für Wirtschaft FHNW. You can talk to her in Latin, i.e. in a dead language that thus comes alive in a way, and ask her questions about grammar. It was tested by a relevant expert. One benefit, according to Karim N’diaye, is that you can communicate in Latin around the clock, thinking about what and how to write. One danger, he says, is that there are repeated errors in the answers. For example, sometimes the word order is not correct. In addition, it is possible that the meaning is twisted. This can happen with a human teacher, and the learner should always be alert and look for errors. Without a doubt, @ve is a tool that can be profitably integrated into Latin classes. There, students can report what they have experienced with it at home, and they can have a chat with it on the spot, alone or in a group, accompanied by the teacher. A follow-up project on an endangered language has already been announced (Illustration: Karim N’diaye/Unsplash).

January 14, 2023January 14, 2023

AI for Well-being

As part of the AAAI 2023 Spring Symposia in San Francisco, the symposium “Socially Responsible AI for Well-being” is organized by Takashi Kido (Teikyo University, Japan) and Keiki Takadama (The University of Electro-Communications, Japan). The AAAI website states: “For our happiness, AI is not enough to be productive in exponential growth or economic/financial supremacies but should be socially responsible from the viewpoint of fairness, transparency, accountability, reliability, safety, privacy, and security. For example, AI diagnosis system should provide responsible results (e.g., a high-accuracy of diagnostics result with an understandable explanation) but the results should be socially accepted (e.g., data for AI (machine learning) should not be biased (i.e., the amount of data for learning should be equal among races and/or locations). Like this example, a decision of AI affects our well-being, which suggests the importance of discussing ‘What is socially responsible?’ in several potential situations of well-being in the coming AI age.” (Website AAAI) According to the organizers, the first perspective is “(Individually) Responsible AI”, which aims to clarify what kinds of mechanisms or issues should be taken into consideration to design Responsible AI for well-being. The second perspective is “Socially Responsible AI”, which aims to clarify what kinds of mechanisms or issues should be taken into consideration to implement social aspects in Responsible AI for well-being. More information via www.aaai.org/Symposia/Spring/sss23.php#ss09.

January 11, 2023January 11, 2023

Proceedings of Robophilosophy 2022

In January 2023, the proceedings of Robophilosophy 2022 were published, under the title “Social Robots in Social Institutions”. “This book presents the Proceedings of Robophilosophy 2022, the 5th event in the biennial Robophilosophy conference series, held in Helsinki, Finland, from 16 to 19 August 2022. The theme of this edition of the conference was Social Robots in Social Institutions, and it featured international multidisciplinary research from the humanities, social sciences, Human-Robot Interaction, and social robotics. The 63 papers, 41 workshop papers and 5 posters included in this book are divided into 4 sections: plenaries, sessions, workshops and posters, with the 41 papers in the ‘Sessions’ section grouped into 13 subdivisions including elderly care, healthcare, law, education and art, as well as ethics and religion. These papers explore the anticipated conceptual and practical changes which will come about in the course of introducing social robotics into public and private institutions, such as public services, legal systems, social and healthcare services, or educational institutions.” (Website IOS Press) The proceedings contain the paper “Robots in Policing” by Oliver Bendel and the poster “Tamagotchi on our couch: Are social robots perceived as pets?” by Katharina Kühne, Melinda A. Jeglinski-Mende, and Oliver Bendel. More information via www.iospress.com/catalog/books/social-robots-in-social-institutions.

January 9, 2023January 11, 2023

AI-based Q-bear

Why is your baby crying? And what if artificial intelligence (AI) could answer that question for you? “If there was a flat little orb the size of a dessert plate that could tell you exactly what your baby needs in that moment? That’s what Q-bear is trying to do.” (Mashable, January 3, 2023) That’s what tech magazine Mashable wrote in a recent article. At CES 2023, the Taiwanese company qbaby.ai demonstrated its AI-powered tool which aims to help parents resolve their needs in a more targeted way. “The soft silicone-covered device, which can be fitted in a crib or stroller, uses Q-bear’s patented tech to analyze a baby’s cries to determine one of four needs from its ‘discomfort index’: hunger, a dirty diaper, sleepiness, and need for comfort. Q-bear’s translation comes within 10 seconds of a baby crying, and the company says it will become more accurate the more you use the device.” (Mashable, January 3, 2023) Whether the tool really works remains to be seen – presumably, baby cries can be interpreted more easily than animal languages. Perhaps the use of the tool is ultimately counterproductive because parents forget to trust their own intuition. The article “CES 2023: The device that tells you why your baby is crying” can be accessed via mashable.com/article/ces-2023-why-is-my-baby-crying.

December 30, 2022January 11, 2023

AAAI 2023 Spring Symposia in San Fran

The Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) is pleased to present the AAAI 2023 Spring Symposia, to be held at the Hyatt Regency, San Francisco Airport, California, March 27-29. According to the organizers, Stanford University cannot act as host this time because of insufficient staff. Symposia of particular interest from a philosophical point of view are “AI Climate Tipping-Point Discovery”, “AI Trustworthiness Assessment”, “Computational Approaches to Scientific Discovery”, “Evaluation and Design of Generalist Systems (EDGeS): Challenges and methods for assessing the new generation of AI”, and “Socially Responsible AI for Well-being”. According to AAAI, symposia generally range from 40–75 participants each. “Participation will be open to active participants as well as other interested individuals on a first-come, first-served basis.” (Website AAAI) Over the past decade, the conference has become one of the most important venues in the world for discussions on robot ethics, machine ethics, and AI ethics. It will be held again at History Corner from 2024. Further information via www.aaai.org/Symposia/Spring/sss23.php.

December 28, 2022December 28, 2022

Gendering Hugvie

On December 13th, 2022, the hybrid workshop “Realization of Avatar-Symbiotic Society” was held at the ICSR. It was organized by Dr. Takahiro Miyashita (ATR) and Prof. Dr. Takashi Yoshimi (Shibaura-IT). The description of the workshop was as follows: “This workshop aims at presenting the ongoing progress of the challenges on the Moonshot (MS) human-centered long-term R&D program. It will discuss by focusing on the goal 1 of the MS dealing with the future realization of an avatar-symbiotic society and cybernetic avatars (CAs). In the workshop, semi-autonomous tele-operated robots and CG agents are called CAs. The participants will discuss with speakers who are researchers related to CAs technology about the avatar-symbiotic society which enables to freely and actively participate in society for every person.” (Website ICSR) The first lecture entitled “Avatar and the future society” was given by Prof. Dr. Hiroshi Ishiguro (Osaka University). He introduced Erica, Telenoid, and Hugvie, among others. Hugvie is a technically expandable doll that can be hugged. He also introduced his “Avatar Infrastructure”: “Anyone, including the elderly and people with disabilities, will be able to freely participate in various activities with abilities beyond ordinary people while expanding their physical, cognitive, and perceptual abilities using a large number of CAs.” Prof. Dr. Oliver Bendel mentioned to Hiroshi Ishiguro that two of his former students, Nhi Tran Hoang Yen and Thang Hoang Vu from Ho Chi Minh City, interpreted his Hugvie as a female figure and designed a male figur (Gendering Hugvie) as part of a project on social robots. The roboticist from Osaka replied that his Hugvie doll had no gender, but noted the reception with interest. Other presentations with exciting discussions followed. More information on the conference via www.icsr2022.it.

December 23, 2022December 23, 2022

Minding Animals 2024

After an hiatus of six years, Minding Animals will return, with a conference tentatively scheduled to be held 11 – 17 July, 2024. This was announced by the organizers in a message dated December 19, 2022. “Just like the postponed 2021 conference, Minding Animals 5 (MAC5) will be hosted by the Centre for Compassionate Conservation (CfCC) in the Transdisciplinary School at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS).” (Message from Minding Animals International) The organizers refer to the Minding Animals Bulletin 53 regarding the vision of the conference and the preparation of the authors. “We believe that the greatest threat posed to the planet, to all planetary life, human or nonhuman animal, plant or otherwise, including the current pandemic, is the intersection of animal agriculture and the climate crisis. Hence, the urgency and criticality of climate as the key theme.” (Minding Animals Bulletin 53) Possible subtopics include “The biodiversity crisis and climate change”, “Rewilding and compassionate conservation”, “The animal industrial complex”, “Animals, the circular economy and sustainable food systems”, and “Animals in development and food sovereignty”.