Robohub.org
 

HRI 2020 Keynote: Ayanna Howard


by
13 April 2020



share this:

Intelligent systems, especially those with an embodied construct, are becoming pervasive in our society. From chatbots to rehabilitation robotics, from shopping agents to robot tutors, people are adopting these systems into their daily life activities. Alas, associated with this increased acceptance is a concern with the ethical ramifications as we start becoming more dependent on these devices [1]. Studies, including our own, suggest that people tend to trust, in some cases overtrusting, the decision-making capabilities of these systems [2]. For high-risk activities, such as in healthcare, when human judgment should still have priority at times, this propensity to overtrust becomes troubling [3]. Methods should thus be designed to examine when overtrust can occur, modelling the behavior for future scenarios and, if possible, introduce system behaviors in order to mitigate. In this talk, we will discuss a number of human-robot interaction studies conducted where we examined this phenomenon of overtrust, including healthcare-related scenarios with vulnerable populations, specifically children with disabilities.

References

  1. A. Howard, J. Borenstein, “The Ugly Truth About Ourselves and Our Robot Creations: The Problem of Bias and Social Inequity,” Science and Engineering Ethics Journal, 24(5), pp 1521–1536, October 2018.
  2. A. R. Wagner, J. Borenstein, A. Howard, “Overtrust in the Robotic Age: A Contemporary Ethical Challenge,” Communications of the ACM, 61(9), Sept. 2018.
  3. J. Borenstein, A. Wagner, A. Howard, “Overtrust of Pediatric Healthcare Robots: A Preliminary Survey of Parent Perspectives,” IEEE Robotics and Automation Magazine, 25(1), pp. 46–54, March 2018.

Publication: HRI ’20: Proceedings of the 2020 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction |March 2020 | Pages 1 |https://doi.org/10.1145/3319502.3374842

 




Silicon Valley Robotics is an industry association supporting innovation and commercialization of robotics technologies.
Silicon Valley Robotics is an industry association supporting innovation and commercialization of robotics technologies.


Subscribe to Robohub newsletter on substack



Related posts :

Robot Talk Episode 148 – Ethical robot behaviour, with Alan Winfield

  13 Mar 2026
In the latest episode of the Robot Talk podcast, Claire chatted to Alan Winfield from the University of the West of England about developing new standards for ethics and transparency in robotics.

Coding for underwater robotics

  12 Mar 2026
Lincoln Laboratory intern Ivy Mahncke developed and tested algorithms to help human divers and robots navigate underwater.

Restoring surgeons’ sense of touch with robotic fingertips

  10 Mar 2026
Researchers are developing robotic “fingertips” that could give surgeons back their sense of touch during minimally invasive and robotic operations.

Robot Talk Episode 147 – Miniature living robots, with Maria Guix

  06 Mar 2026
In the latest episode of the Robot Talk podcast, Claire chatted to Maria Guix from the University of Barcelona about combining electronics and biology to create biohybrid robots with emergent properties.

Developing an optical tactile sensor for tracking head motion during radiotherapy: an interview with Bhoomika Gandhi

  05 Mar 2026
Bhoomika Gandhi discusses her work on an optical sensor for medical robotics applications.

Humanoid home robots are on the market – but do we really want them?

  03 Mar 2026
Last year, Norwegian-US tech company 1X announced “the world’s first consumer-ready humanoid robot designed to transform life at home”.

Robot Talk Episode 146 – Embodied AI on the ISS, with Jamie Palmer

  27 Feb 2026
In the latest episode of the Robot Talk podcast, Claire chatted to Jamie Palmer from Icarus Robotics about building a robotic labour force to perform routine and risky tasks in orbit.

I developed an app that uses drone footage to track plastic litter on beaches

  26 Feb 2026
Plastic pollution is one of those problems everyone can see, yet few know how to tackle it effectively.



Robohub is supported by:


Subscribe to Robohub newsletter on substack




 















©2026.02 - Association for the Understanding of Artificial Intelligence