Ayanna Howard: Human-Robot Interaction & Ethics of Safety-Critical Systems | Lex Fridman Podcast #66

ℹ️ EPISODE INFO

Released

January 17, 2020

Duration

1h 39m

Channel

Lex Fridman Podcast

Watch on YouTube

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📝 EPISODE DESCRIPTION

Ayanna Howard is a roboticist and professor at Georgia Tech, director of Human-Automation Systems lab, with research interests in human-robot interaction, assistive robots in the home, therapy gaming apps, and remote robotic exploration of extreme environments. This episode is presented by Cash App. Download it & use code "LexPodcast": Cash App (App Store): https://apple.co/2sPrUHe Cash App (Google Play): https://bit.ly/2MlvP5w PODCAST INFO: Podcast website: https://lexfridman.com/podcast Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2lwqZIr Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2nEwCF8 RSS: https://lexfridman.com/feed/podcast/ Full episodes playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrAXtmErZgOdP_8GztsuKi9nrraNbKKp4 Clips playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrAXtmErZgOeciFP3CBCIEElOJeitOr41 EPISODE LINKS: Ayanna Website: https://howard.ece.gatech.edu/ Ayanna Twitter: https://twitter.com/robotsmarts OUTLINE: 0:00 - Introduction 2:09 - Favorite robot 5:05 - Autonomous vehicles 8:43 - Tesla Autopilot 20:03 - Ethical responsibility of safety-critical algorithms 28:11 - Bias in robotics 38:20 - AI in politics and law 40:35 - Solutions to bias in algorithms 47:44 - HAL 9000 49:57 - Memories from working at NASA 51:53 - SpotMini and Bionic Woman 54:27 - Future of robots in space 57:11 - Human-robot interaction 1:02:38 - Trust 1:09:26 - AI in education 1:15:06 - Andrew Yang, automation, and job loss 1:17:17 - Love, AI, and the movie Her 1:25:01 - Why do so many robotics companies fail? 1:32:22 - Fear of robots 1:34:17 - Existential threats of AI 1:35:57 - Matrix 1:37:37 - Hang out for a day with a robot CONNECT:

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🎤 SPEAKERS

• Lex Fridman

  host

• Ayanna Howard

  guest

🧾 EPISODE SUMMARY

In this episode of Lex Fridman Podcast, featuring Lex Fridman and Ayanna Howard, Ayanna Howard: Human-Robot Interaction & Ethics of Safety-Critical Systems | Lex Fridman Podcast #66 explores ayanna Howard on Imperfect Robots, Human Trust, and Ethical AI Ayanna Howard and Lex Fridman explore how real-world robots must be less than theoretically ‘perfect’ to function well alongside messy, unpredictable humans. They discuss autonomous vehicles, bias and fairness in AI, and why every developer inevitably bears ethical responsibility when their code impacts human lives. Howard emphasizes that AI is often still less biased than humans, but must be systematically audited, corrected, and designed with adaptation to people at its core. The conversation ranges from medical and educational robots to robot rights, future labor displacement, and whether humans might one day fall in love with AI systems.

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