Kate Darling: Social Robotics | Lex Fridman Podcast #98

ℹ️ EPISODE INFO

Released

May 23, 2020

Duration

1h 12m

Channel

Lex Fridman Podcast

Watch on YouTube

▶ Open ↗

📝 EPISODE DESCRIPTION

Kate Darling is a researcher at MIT, interested in social robotics, robot ethics, and generally how technology intersects with society. She explores the emotional connection between human beings and life-like machines, which for me, is one of the most exciting topics in all of artificial intelligence. Support this podcast by signing up with these sponsors:

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EPISODE LINKS: Kate's Website: http://www.katedarling.org/ Kate's Twitter: https://twitter.com/grok_ 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 OUTLINE: 0:00 - Introduction 3:31 - Robot ethics 4:36 - Universal Basic Income 6:31 - Mistreating robots 17:17 - Robots teaching us about ourselves 20:27 - Intimate connection with robots 24:29 - Trolley problem and making difficult moral decisions 31:59 - Anthropomorphism 38:09 - Favorite robot 41:19 - Sophia 42:46 - Designing robots for human connection 47:01 - Why is it so hard to build a personal robotics company? 50:03 - Is it possible to fall in love with a robot? 56:39 - Robots displaying consciousness and mortality 58:33 - Manipulation of emotion by companies 1:04:40 - Intellectual property 1:09:23 - Lessons for robotics from parenthood 1:10:41 - Hope for future of robotics CONNECT:

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🎤 SPEAKERS

• Lex Fridman

  host

• Kate Darling

  guest

🧾 EPISODE SUMMARY

In this episode of Lex Fridman Podcast, featuring Lex Fridman and Kate Darling, Kate Darling: Social Robotics | Lex Fridman Podcast #98 explores how Our Emotional Bonds With Robots Shape Ethics, Rights, And Society Lex Fridman and MIT researcher Kate Darling discuss social robotics, focusing on how humans emotionally respond to robots and what that means ethically and legally. They explore labor and automation myths, the analogy between robots and animals rather than humans, and whether mistreating robots can affect human empathy. The conversation covers anthropomorphism as both a powerful design tool and a risk for manipulation, including issues around sex robots, military robots, and home assistants. They close by debating regulation, data privacy, IP, and the near‑term prospects for truly compelling social robots in the home.

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