Women who thrill robots

We know: they will change. Indeed, they have already changed. We no longer know who we were when there were no social networks, when there were no remote meetings on Zoom, when we had never seen a robot made in our image and likeness, when we were not talking about aliases and Metaverse.

And when it comes to emotions and empathy, women – let’s face it – are more skilled, more capable of handling matter, also – obviously – from a scientific point of view. It is no coincidence that in Milan, on March 31st, for the fifth stage of Emotionsthe traveling BrainForum conceived by Viviana Kasam, president of BrainCircleItalia, there are women talking about emotions in artificial worlds, a theme chosen together with Maria Grazia Mattei, president of MEET Digital Culture Centerthe international center for digital art and culture.

And so Agnieszka Wykowska, of the Italian Institute of Technology, focuses on new neuroscientific methods for designing more social robots, Daniela Cerqui Ducret, of the University of Lausanne, deals with cyborgs and magical thinking and Barbara Mazzolai, of the Italian Institute of Technology , hints at how robots can be more human. And then, again, Mavi Sanchez Vives, from ICREA in Barcelona, ​​who enters virtual reality, and Sara Tonelliof the Bruno Kessler Foundation of Trento, which shows the algorithms for identifying hateful messages and emotions on social media.

In short, the future is already our present, where robots are built inspired by the intelligence and sensitivity of animals and plants, where synthetic limbs or microchips are grafted into humans, in a symbiosis between man and machine. We are reaching boundaries that were unthinkable until a few years ago, such as theembodimenta brand new technique that allows you to “deceive” the brain and lower it into another individual, making him feel the emotions of his alias.

But then, today, how “sensitive” can robots be? What do they know and what can they do that they couldn’t do until yesterday? Answers Alessandra Sciutti, from the Italian Institute of Technology, who for years has been studying how it is possible to understand each other between humans and robots: “For a long time robotic research has focused on creating extremely precise and efficient robots, capable of repeating millions of times, flawlessly, the same operation. These are the machines that we find for example in car factories. However, these robots only know how to perform the single task for which they were built: they do not know how to generalize their skills, adapt to different environments or to collaborate with humans. An important challenge of today’s robotics is instead that of “taking robots out of the factories”, so that they can have a positive impact also in other sectors of society. However, this ambition cannot ignore the interaction with us human beings. Therefore, the need arises to have machines capable of relating to the human being: not only from a physical point of view – for example by moving so as not to scare the partner or having sensors that prevent impacts – but from a cognitive point of view. . In fact, in order to interact effectively, it is essential that the robot learns to understand and anticipate my actions and my needs, in order, for example, to pass me the right tool at the right time. But even this is not enough: he must be able to understand my state of mind. He will have to change his way of behaving according to how I am, perhaps slowing down his gestures, if he realizes that I am tired or distracted, or speeding up, if I am bored or in a hurry and in general choosing gestures and words appropriate to my emotional state. The research we are conducting aims for example at allowing robots to estimate the cognitive load and emotional reaction of the partner during an interaction, by reading his gaze, the style of movement and his facial expressions. This information allows the robot to readjust its behavior, modulating it on the situation to the needs of the partner – for example, allowing the robot to understand if it has “made a mistake” in the interaction without the need for explanations. An important aspect of this sensitivity is also the ability to modify one’s robotic actions to make them more “transparent”, that is, the ability to choose the type of movement and action that is as clear as possible for the observer. A sensitive robot therefore also becomes a more understandable robot ».