| 8.40-9.00 | Arrive/coffee/welcome |
| 9.00-10.00 | Keynote 1: ‘Ethics and Cultural Context in the Age of AI’ |
| 10.00-11.30 | Panel 1: ‘Creative Practice, Robotics and Artificial Intelligence: The Cultural Impact of Collaborating with Non-Humans’ |
| 11.30-12.30 | Lunch |
| 12.30-1.30 | Keynote 2: ‘Better than us? The role of social robots’ |
| 1.30-3.00 | Panel 2: ‘Culture and Space: Cultural negotiations of robots in everyday spaces’ |
| 3.00-3.30 | Coffee break |
| 3.30-5.00 | Panel 3: ‘The datafication and digitalisation of humour’ |
| 5.00-5:20 | Launch of a special issue of the International Journal of Social Robotics: ‘Beyond Anthropomorphism’ |
| 5.20-5.35 | Closing remarks |
Keynote 1
Ethics and Cultural Context in the Age of AI
Keynote speaker: Professor Kaoru Endo (Gakushuin University)
Due to rapid advances in ICT technology, robots and AI have become a commonplace part of our lives. When we get into our cars, they are naturally equipped with systems that provide directions and driving assistance, and occasionally speak to us in our own language. Self-driving cars are also becoming a reality. These electronic neighbors are still in the shadows, but they will soon acquire a high degree of autonomy, be able to make judgments and decisions without human control, and become involved in human behavior. As autonomous robots communicate with humans on an equal footing and influence human behavior, thoughts, feelings, and outcomes, humans and robots will need to share the same ways of interacting (rules as assumptions) as humans do with each other. This presentation will discuss the social embedding of new technologies and cultural issues based on surveys in Japan, the U.S., and China on the “trolley problem,” a typical ethical (moral) dilemma.
Panel 1
Creative Practice, Robotics and Artificial Intelligence: The Cultural Process of Collaborating with Non-Humans
The process of creative human collaboration with AI and Robotics is underpinned by the cultural decisions of the developers, users and future audience. This panel will explore how AI and robotics are being developed to collaborate, the cultural forces shaping their use in creative practice, and how the perception of creative AI collaborators varies from their reality.
Moderator: Dr Richard Savery (Macquarie University)
Panellists: Janet Biggs (Artist), Dr Duri Long (Northwestern University), Dr Juan Rubio (University of Texas at El Paso) and Dr Chris Stanton (Western Sydney University/ Defence Science and Technology Group)
Keynote 2
Better than us? The role of social robots.
Keynote speaker: Associate Professor Christoph Bartneck (University of Canterbury.)
Nearly every human-robot interaction paper starts with the assumption that social robots will play an important role in our society. It is unclear when this may happen. It is however clear, that it has not happened yet. I will discuss some of the ethical and practical concerns people have when interacting with a robot. What is ethical okay to do to them? What are we afraid of? What will the future of social robots be?
Panel 2
Culture and Space: Cultural negotiations of robots in everyday spaces
Everyday spaces are social and cultural productions that include a wide range of technologies that mediate and transform them. As robots are introduced into new settings such as schools, restaurants and public spaces they intervene in that space and undergo a process of cultural negotiation. In this panel we explore how robots are being designed for social roles in particular spaces and settings, what labour they perform in those spaces and how their intervention in space is received and negotiated.
Moderators: Dr Justine Humphry and Dr Chris Chesher (University of Sydney)
Panellists: Associate Professor Arisa Ema (University of Tokyo) and DrCelia Spoden (German Institute for Japanese Studies), Associate Professor Shanti Sumartojo (Monash University), and Dr Fiona Andreallo (RMIT).
Panel 3
The datafication and digitalisation of humour
Laughter is one of the bodily responses that mediates the way users interact with and perceive digital technologies. This interdisciplinary panel will explore the datafication and digitalisation of humour to delve into the culturally situated nature of technology. What does it mean to laugh with or laugh at technological objects, and what does it mean to feel laughed at by them? How is humour coded, quantified, and algorithmically validated and traded? These are some of the guiding questions that shape the panel discussion.
Moderators: Dr Ben Nickl (University of Sydney) and Dr Chris Muller (Macquarie University)
Panellists: Dr Divesh Lala (Kyoto University)