One of the most useful metaphors for driving scientific and engineering progress has been that of the “machine”. Much controversy exists about the applicability of this concept in the life sciences. Advances in molecular biology have revealed numerous design principles that can be harnessed to understand cells from an engineering perspective, and build novel devices to rationally exploit the laws of chemistry, physics, and computation. At the same time, organicists point to the many unique features of life, especially at larger scales of organization, which have resisted decomposition analysis and artificial implementation. Here, we argue that much of this debate has focused on inessential aspects of machines – classical properties which have been surpassed by advances in modern Machine Behavior and no longer apply. This emerging multidisciplinary field, at the interface of artificial life, machine learning, and synthetic bioengineering, is highlighting the inadequacy of existing definitions. Key terms such as machine, robot, program, software, evolved, designed, etc. need to be revised in light of technological and theoretical advances that have moved past the dated philosophical conceptions that have limited our understanding of both evolved and designed systems. Moving beyond contingent aspects of historical and current machines will enable conceptual tools that embrace inevitable advances in synthetic and hybrid bioengineering and computer science, toward a framework that identifies essential distinctions between fundamental concepts of devices and living agents. Progress in both theory and practical applications requires the establishment of a novel conception of “machines as they could be”, based on the profound lessons of biology at all scales. We sketch a perspective that acknowledges the remarkable, unique aspects of life to help re-define key terms, and identify deep, essential features of concepts for a future in which sharp boundaries between evolved and designed systems will not exist.

/pdf/living-things-are-not-20th-century-machines-updating-1bmc2fdqb7.pdf

Living Things Are Not (20th Century) Machines: Updating Mechanism Metaphors in Light of the Modern Science of Machine Behavior

In the last few years there was an increasing interest in building companion robots that interact in a socially acceptable way with humans. In order to interact in a meaningful way a robot has to convey intentionality and emotions of some sort in order to increase believability. We suggest that human-robot interaction should be considered as a specific form of inter-specific interaction and that human-animal interaction can provide a useful biological model for designing social robots. Dogs can provide a promising biological model since during the domestication process dogs were able to adapt to the human environment and to participate in complex social interactions. In this observational study we propose to design emotionally expressive behaviour of robots using the behaviour of dogs as inspiration and to test these dog-inspired robots with humans in inter-specific context. In two experiments (wizard-of-oz scenarios) we examined humans' ability to recognize two basic and a secondary emotion expressed by a robot. In Experiment 1 we provided our companion robot with two kinds of emotional behaviour ("happiness" and "fear"), and studied whether people attribute the appropriate emotion to the robot, and interact with it accordingly. In Experiment 2 we investigated whether participants tend to attribute guilty behaviour to a robot in a relevant context by examining whether relying on the robot's greeting behaviour human participants can detect if the robot transgressed a predetermined rule. Results of Experiment 1 showed that people readily attribute emotions to a social robot and interact with it in accordance with the expressed emotional behaviour. Results of Experiment 2 showed that people are able to recognize if the robot transgressed on the basis of its greeting behaviour. In summary, our findings showed that dog-inspired behaviour is a suitable medium for making people attribute emotional states to a non-humanoid robot.

/pdf/emotion-attribution-to-a-non-humanoid-robot-in-different-4ieqhbav4t.pdf

Emotion attribution to a non-humanoid robot in different social situations.

Emotions, and emotional expression, have a broad influence on the interactions we have with others and are thus a key factor to consider in developing social robots. As part of a collaborative EU project, this study examined the impact of lifelike affective facial expressions, in the humanoid robot Zeno, on children’s behavior and attitudes towards the robot. Results indicate that robot expressions have mixed effects depending on the gender of the participant. Male participants showed a positive affective response, and indicated greater liking towards the robot, when it made positive and negative affective facial expressions during an interactive game, when compared to the same robot with a neutral expression. Female participants showed no marked difference across two conditions. This is the first study to demonstrate an effect of life-like emotional expression on children’s behavior in the field. We discuss the broader implications of these findings in terms of gender differences in HRI, noting the importance of the gender appearance of the robot (in this case, male) and in relation to the overall strategy of the project to advance the understanding of how interactions with expressive robots could lead to task-appropriate symbiotic relationships.

Presence of Life-Like Robot Expressions Influences Children’s Enjoyment of Human-Robot Interactions in the Field

Emotions, and emotional expression, have a broad influence on social interactions and are thus a key factor to consider in developing social robots. This study examined the impact of life-like affective facial expressions, in the humanoid robot Zeno, on children’s behaviour and attitudes towards the robot. Results indicate that robot expressions have mixed effects depending on participant gender. Male participants interacting with a responsive facially expressive robot showed a positive affective response and indicated greater liking towards the robot, compared to those interacting with the same robot maintaining a neutral expression. Female participants showed no marked difference across the conditions. We discuss the broader implications of these findings in terms of gender differences in human–robot interaction, noting the importance of the gender appearance in robots (in this case, male) and in relation to advancing the understanding of how interactions with expressive robots could lead to task-appropriate symbiotic relationships.

/pdf/the-effects-of-robot-facial-emotional-expressions-and-gender-1z8zdsk3u3.pdf

The effects of robot facial emotional expressions and gender on child--robot interaction in a field study

Artificial intelligence (AI) applications have become an integral part of our society. However, studying AI as one entity or studying idiosyncratic applications separately both have limitations. Thus, this study used computational methods to categorize ten different AI roles prevalent in our everyday life and compared laypeople’s perceptions of them using online survey data (N = 727). Based on theoretical factors related to the fundamental nature of AI, the principal component analysis revealed two dimensions that categorize AI: human involvement and AI autonomy. K-means clustering identified four AI role clusters: tools (low in both dimensions), servants (high human involvement and low AI autonomy), assistants (low human involvement and high AI autonomy), and mediators (high in both dimensions). Multivariate analyses of covariances revealed that people assessed AI mediators the most and AI tools the least favorably. Demographics also influenced laypeople’s assessments of AI. The implications of these results are discussed.

One AI Does Not Fit All: A Cluster Analysis of the Laypeople’s Perception of AI Roles

In his famous thought experiments on synthetic vehicles, Valentino Braitenberg stipulated that simple stimulus-response reactions in an organism could evoke the appearance of complex behavior, which, to the unsuspecting human observer, may even appear to be driven by emotions such as fear, aggression, and even love (Braitenberg, Vehikel. Experimente mit kunstlichen Wesen, Lit Verlag, 2004). In fact, humans appear to have a strong propensity to anthropomorphize, driven by our inherent desire for predictability that will quickly lead us to discern patterns, cause-and-effect relationships, and yes, emotions, in animated entities, be they natural or artificial. But might there be reasons, that we should intentionally "implement" emotions into artificial entities, such as robots? How would we proceed in creating robot emotions? And what, if any, are the ethical implications of creating "emotional" robots? The following article aims to shed some light on these questions with a multi-disciplinary review of recent empirical investigations into the various facets of emotions in robot psychology.

Emotions in robot psychology

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Emotions in robot psychology