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    Alan Winfield

    Thoughts on the EU’s draft report on robotics
      08 May 2017
    I was asked to write a short op-ed on the European Parliament Law Committee's recommendations on civil law rules for robotics. In the end, the piece didn't get published, so I am posting it here:...

    The Robot Economy: Interview with Alan Winfield
      24 Aug 2016
    Robots and their impact on the economy is on the forefront of everyone’s mind. Will robots increase productivity and jobs, improve society, and will wealth be shared? To address this question, we’...

    The dark side of ethical robots
      09 Aug 2016
    When I was interviewed on the BBC Radio 4's Today programme in 2014, Justin Webb's final question was, "If you can make an ethical robot, doesn't that mean you could make an unethical robot?" The ans...

    Robust and transparent governance is key to building trust in driverless cars
      12 Apr 2016
    Sooner or later there will be fatal accident caused by a driverless car. It's not a question of if, but when. What happens immediately following that accident could have a profound effect on the nasce...

    Robotics needs to get political
      27 Jan 2015
    A couple of weeks ago I was a panelist on a public debate at the 2014 Battle of Ideas. The title of the debate was The robots are coming: friends or foes? with a focus not on the technology but the ...

    Robot simulators and why I will probably reject your paper
      18 Dec 2014
    Dear robotics and AI researcher, Do you use simulation as a research tool? If you write papers with results based on simulation and submit them for peer-review, then be warned: if I should review y...

    Philae: A proof of concept for cometary landing
      01 Dec 2014
    We asked Alan Winfield what the first successful landing on a comet means for the future of space mining. Find out his answer below. The successful landing of Philae on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasim...

    The feeling of what it is like to be a robot
      17 Oct 2014
    Philosopher Thomas Nagel famously characterised subjective experience as “something that it is like to be…” and suggested that for a bat, for instance, there must be something that it is like to...

    Experiments designing an ethical robot
      30 Sep 2014
    In my last post I wrote about our work on robots with internal models: robots with a simulation of themselves and their environment inside themselves. I explained that we have built a robot with a ...

    In praise of robot football
      09 Sep 2014
    Republished here is a short piece for The Conversation reflecting on robot football: 4-4-2 becomes 0101: inside the competitive world of robot football, published 4 August 2014. This summer the ...

    On internal models, consequence engines and Popperian creatures
      08 Sep 2014
    So. We've been busy in the lab the last few months. Really exciting. Let me explain. For a couple of years I've been thinking about robots with internal models. Not internal models in the classical...

    We should not be privileging the singularity hypothesis | Alan Winfield via The Guardian
      03 Sep 2014
    By worrying unnecessarily [about the Singularity hypothesis] I think we’re falling into a trap: the fallacy of privileging the hypothesis. And – perhaps worse – taking our eyes off other risks ...

    Your robot doggie could really be pleased to see you
      02 Sep 2014
    There have been several stories in the last few weeks about emotional robots - robots that feel. Some are suggesting that this is the next big thing in robotics. It's something I wrote about in t...

    What would be the energy cost of artificially evolving human-equivalent AI?
      28 Jul 2014
    Want to create human-equivalent AI? Well, broadly speaking, there are three approaches open to you: design it, reverse-engineer it or evolve it. The third of these - artificial evolution - is attrac...

    The next big things in robotics
      08 Jul 2014
    Last week I attended the launch event for a new NESTA publication called Our work here is done: Visions of a Robot Economy....

    Why robots will not be smarter than humans by 2029
      07 Mar 2014
    Statue of Alan Turing. Photo credit: Neil Crosby In the last few days we've seen a spate of headlines like 2029: the year when robots will have the power to outsmart their makers, all occasioned by ...

    Alan Winfield on “What does it mean to have giants like Google, Apple and Amazon investing in robotics?”
      12 Feb 2014
      Judging by the levels of media coverage and frenzied speculation that has followed each acquisition, the short answer to what does it mean is: endless press exposure. I almost wrote 'priceless exp...

    Soft robotics in space
      14 Dec 2013
    Space robotics is understandably conservative. When the cost of putting a robot on a planet, moon or asteroid runs into the billions we need to be sure the technology will work. And with very long pro...

    Noisy imitation speeds up group learning
      03 Dec 2013
    Broadly speaking there are two kinds of learning: individual learning and social learning. Individual learning means learning something entirely on your own, without reference to anyone else who might...

    Ethical robots: Some technical and ethical challenges
      19 Nov 2013
    I've been talking about robot ethics for several years now, but that's mostly been about how we roboticists must be responsible and mindful of the societal impact of our creations. Two years ago I w...

    A close(ish) encounter with Voyager 2
      27 Oct 2013
    It is summer 1985. I'm visiting Caltech with colleague and PhD supervisor Rod Goodman. Rod has just been appointed in the Electrical Engineering Department at Caltech, and I'm still on a high from ...

    Don’t build robots, build robot systems
      07 Oct 2013
    Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. Why aren't there more intelligent mobile robots in real world applications? It's a good question, and one I'm often asked. The answer I give most often is tha...

    The triangle of life: Evolving robots in real-time and real-space
      20 Sep 2013
    At the excellent European Conference on Artificial Life (ECAL) a couple of weeks ago we presented a paper called The Triangle of Life: Evolving Robots in Real-time and Real-space (this links...

    Memories of Skyrim
      26 Aug 2013
    From time to time I like to visit Skyrim. I've been going there for about 2 years - completed the main quest a year or so ago, and since then go back to undertake a side quest or, more often that not,...

    The scourge of the RoboTroll is already upon us
      22 Aug 2013
    When a robot ethics working group met nearly three years ago one of the things we fretted about was privacy. We were concerned especially about personal companion robots. Whatever their purpose, be it...

    When robots start telling each other stories…
      31 Jul 2013
    About 6 years ago the late amazing Richard Gregory said to me, with a twinkle in his eye, "when your robots start telling each other stories, then you'll really be onto something". It was a remark wit...

    Robotics has a new kind of Cartesian Dualism, and it’s just as unhelpful
      22 Jul 2013
    I believe robotics has re-invented mind-body dualism. At the excellent European Robotics Forum earlier this year, I attended a workshop called AI meets Robotics....

    euRathlon and the DARPA Robot Challenge: A difference of approach
      22 Jul 2013
      A week ago the DARPA Robotics Challenge unveiled the ATLAS humanoid robot, which will be used by seven competing teams. Developed by Boston Dynamics, ATLAS is an imposing 1.8m 150Kg bipedal humano...

    New Robotics and new opportunities
      28 May 2013
    Here are the slides of my talk at the BARA Academic Forum for Robotics meeting Robotics: from innovation to service, on Monday 20 May 2013:...

    Alan Winfield on “What is the single biggest obstacle preventing robotics from going mainstream?”
      15 May 2013
    Well it depends on what you mean by mainstream. For a number of  major industry sectors robotics is already mainstream. In assembly-line automation, for instance; or undersea oil well maintenance and...

    What is the single biggest obstacle preventing robotics from going mainstream?
      15 May 2013
    It has been said that we are on the edge of a 'robotic tipping point' … but where, exactly, is this edge? And what's holding us back?  This month we asked our panelists to weigh in on what's keepin...

    Could we experience the workings of our own brains?
      08 May 2013
    One of the oft quoted paradoxes of consciousness is that we are unable to observe or experience our own conscious minds at work; that we cannot be conscious of the workings of consciousness. I've alwa...

    A crisis of expectations
      29 Apr 2013
    At the first UK Robot Ethics workshop on 25th March 2013, I offered — for discussion — the proposition that robotics is facing a Crisis of Expectations. And not for the first time. I argue that on...

    euRathlon is go!
      07 Feb 2013
    I'm very excited to be leading a new project called euRathlon - which is short for European Robotics Athlon. Up until now the project has been under wraps, but now - finally - we can go public. I'll e...

    Robot know thyself
      27 Jun 2012
    How can we measure self-awareness in artificial systems?...




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