Secret Agents: The Real and Imagined Inner Lives of Interactive Robots

Robots are Secret Agents. By this I mean that while computer scientists and roboticists may not view their robots as being fully autonomous, interactive, and adaptive, everyday users perceive them as such nonetheless.

This creates a whole host of user expectations that may be hard to live up to -- and that may cause problems when violated. In this talk, I'll begin by explaining how robot design choices impact how people perceive robots and expect them to behave.

I'll then explain why robots are not simply agents, but are also moral and social agents, and explain the work the MIRRORLab has been doing to understand and address the unique perceptions and expectations that come along with these more nuanced types of agency. Finally, I'll discuss how these two types of agency interact, and the unique challenges that this imposes.