Toshie Takahashi, Waseda University

Brief bio:

Toshie Takahashi is Professor in the School of Culture, Media and Society, as well as the Institute for AI and Robotics, Waseda University, Tokyo.  She has been appointed as an Associate Fellow of the CFI, the University of Cambridge.  She has held visiting appointments at the University of Oxford, Harvard University and Columbia University.

She conducts cross-cultural and trans-disciplinary research on the social impact of robots as well as the potential of AI for Good. She is currently leading two projects on youth and AI. The goal of both projects is to contribute towards a vision of a future where human happiness takes centre stage.  The first one is “A Future with AI” project in collaboration with the United Nation. She is also involved in “Moonshot R&D projects” by leading the Gen ZAI project, engaging youths now for a global AI future in collaboration with the University of Cambridge, the Stanford University, and others.

Finally, Takahashi sits on the advisory committee of the Information and Communication Council, Ministry of the Internal Affairs and Communications, Japan.

Kristiina Jokinen, AIST

Brief bio:

Kristiina Jokinen is Senior Researcher at AI Research Center, AIST Tokyo Waterfront and Adjunct Professor at University of Helsinki. She is Life Member of Clare Hall at University of Cambridge, and Member of the ELLIS network. Her research concerns AI-based dialogue modelling, multimodal communication and human-robot interaction, and she has published widely on these topics, including four books. She developed Constructive Dialogue Model as a general framework for interaction, and led development of WikiTalk, a Wikipedia-based robot dialogue system which won Best Robot Design award (Software Category) at International Conference of Social Robotics 2017. She has led numerous national and international research projects, and currently leads dialogue research at AIST in the EU-Japan collaboration project e-VITA, which aims to support active healthy living for older adults, by developing an interactive Virtual Coach and integrating various knowledge sources for trustworthy dialogue modeling. She is on the steering committee of the IWSDS dialogue workshop series and was on the advisory board of the H2020 project EMPATHIC. She has served as Chair or Area Chair of such leading conferences as SIGDIAL, COLING, Interspeech, ICMI, IWSDS, ICSR, and IVA.

Malcolm Fisk, De Montfort University

Remotely

AI, Imitations and Illusions – Towards a Symbiotic or Dystopic Society?

Abstract:

Technological developments mean that robots will become more and more lifelike. But they can only mimic human beings. Any ‘intelligence’ they may have can only be ‘artificial’. There are, as a consequence, dangers if we promote robots (in either physical or virtual environments) on a basis that they can be companions or substitute carers – with which there can be ‘meaningful’ interactions. Robots cannot have emotions or feelings, they can only imitate. They are machines, human beings are not. Any imagined robot ‘companionship’ in the mind of a person who is ‘cared’ for can, therefore, only be founded on deception.

Ethical issues abound. This presentation explores the work of social theorists from Jean Baudrillard to Deborah Lupton to see if they can help our perspectives – for ourselves or with regard to the recipients of care. The context is one, of course, where rapid developments in AI (and, more specifically, machine learning) means that, through the harvesting and use of our data, boundaries of our privacy are being breached. All of us face, therefore, more controls and restrictions. It follows that instead of a society (with robots) that is ‘symbiotic’, therefore, we face the prospect of one that is ‘dystopic’.

Brief bio:

Malcolm Fisk is Professor of Aging and Digital Health at De Montfort University in the United Kingdom. He has extensive international experience and is widely published. His speaking engagements include keynote presentations at many international events. He holds visiting professorial positions at the Open University (UK) and Univerzita Hradec Králové (Czech Republic).

Notable among his roles and activities are his leadership of respective European Commission projects focused on developing a code of practice for tele-health services; and addressing the range and adequacy of standards around ICT and active aging. His work is consistently at the interface of people and technologies – where he champions the need for ethical, inclusive and responsible design and service approaches.

Overall, Malcolm’s career has embraced executive and professional roles for housing and social services in local government (England, Scotland and Wales); establishing and often leading third sector organizations involved in aging and community development; and over fifteen years in academia. He has fulfilled several expert roles for the European Commission, Welsh Government and multiple agencies including NICE (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) and ANEC (European Consumer Voice on Standardization).

Randy Gomez, Honda Research Institute

Developing an Empathetic Robot Haru Informed by UNICEF Policy Guidance for Children

Abstract:

Honda Research Institute Japan (HRI-JP) envisions a society in which systems with cooperative intelligence play a proactive role in nurturing good relationships among diverse members of society. One particularly important research field that the Honda Research Institute is engaged in is the development of Embodied Mediators to help bridge the gap of cross-cultural and intergenerational differences. These machines, equipped with new kind of embodied intelligence, will develop transformative perception and autonomous behavior capabilities. These socially intelligent embodied mediators will support connecting people, cultivating better understanding of one another, and fostering good relationships. As these machines are embedded in the fabric of our society, we need to ensure an ethical and responsible system design. In this forum we will discuss our pilot study with UNICEF regarding our multi-disciplinary research activities with various collaborators on responsible Embodied Mediators for and by children.

Brief bio:

Dr. Randy Gomez is chief scientist at the Honda Research Institute Japan. He oversees the embodied communication research group, which explores the synergy between communication and interaction in order to create meaningful experiences with social robots

Yuko Harayama, RIKEN

Remotely

AI and Society: From the Innovation Policy Perspective

Abstract:

Digital technologies empowered by AI are already embedded in everyday life, facilitating to get information from all around the world, transforming our working practices, impacting the way we humans interact, we build our preference and we decide. We are strongly dependent of information generated by these means, which implies the need to ensure its quality, credibility and validity, while, in some circumstances, the decision-making power of human is challenged by the presence of AI. Also, the deployment of these technologies does not necessarily mean better life, it can also reinforce bias, and digital divide may occur.

Recognizing the transformative power of these technologies, most of government are considering AI as a priority area for investment, and formulating AI strategy.

Japan in no exception. Based on these observations, Japan has introduced in 2016 a framework, so called “Society 5.0”, to drive its Science, Technology and Innovation (STI), in view of extracting the potential of digital technologies, while achieving a “better life”. In my presentation, I will briefly introduce the concept of “Society 5.0”, and then discuss the ethical challenges posed by AI, through the lens of Society 5.0.

Brief bio:

Yuko Harayama is a former Executive Director at RIKEN in charge of international affairs. Prior to joining RIKEN, Dr. Harayama spent five years at the Cabinet Office of Japan as an Executive Member of the Council for Science, Technology and Innovation (CSTI), two years at the OECD as the Deputy Director of the Directorate for Science, Technology and Industry (STI), and ten years at the Graduate School of Engineering of Tohoku University as a professor of Science and Technology Policy.

Dr. Harayama holds a Ph.D. in Education Sciences and a Ph.D. in Economics both from the University of Geneva. She has received Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur in 2011. She is an International Fellow of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences and a Foundation Fellow of the International Science Council.

Yukiko Nakano, Seikei University

Remotely

Ethical issues in interacting with embodied AI towards Symbiotic Society

Abstract:

In realizing Symbiotic Society, interaction with embodied AI is one of the key issues. The embodied AI would be autonomous agents that fully controlled by AI, and semi-autonomous avatars in which AI helps the users to control their avatars. An agent/avatar may be a robot in the physical world or be an animation character in the metaverse. In either case, AI technologies that perceive user’s social signals displayed through their speech and bodily expressions need to be installed in the agents and avatars. It is also possible to synthesize speech and nonverbal behaviors of agents/avatars using AI technologies. However, there has not been sufficient discussion what ethical issues we will face and how to make such artifacts socially accepted. In this presentation, I will discuss research on analyzing human-human and human-agent interaction to envision future Symbiotic Society with robots, and propose possible ethical issues we will face. I will also discuss our research project aiming at realizing Symbiotic Society with Cybernetic Avatars, and our activity of Avatar Social Ethics Design Consortium in this project. I will present what we have discussed through our discussion group and workshops, where we found that user education will be important and indispensable.

Brief bio:

Yukiko Nakano is a professor in the Department of Scient and Technology at Seikei University, Japan, and leading the Intelligent User Interface Laboratory (IUI lab). She received her M.S. in Media Arts and Sciences from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Ph.D. in Information Science and Technology from the University of Tokyo. With the goal of allowing natural human-computer interaction, her IUI lab has addressed issues on modelling conversations by analyzing human verbal and nonverbal communicative behaviors, and based on the empirical models, developing multimodal conversational interfaces as well as related technologies, such as conversation management, multimodal generation, and conversational agents.

Satoshi Narihara, Kyushu University

Remotely

Human Autonomy and Interactions with Intelligent Robots Toward Symbiosis between Persons and Robots

Abstract:

Today, Robotics utilizing Artificial Intelligence (AI) has rapidly developed. Human-Robot Interactions have been emerging in various social fields, such as healthcare and education. On the other hand, Human-Robot Interactions present some ethical and legal challenges, including the risk of privacy infringement, discrimination, digital divide, and safety. Ultimately, the use of intelligent robots may threaten personal autonomy by manipulating the process of individual decision-making.

In my talk, I’ll consider human autonomy and interactions with intelligent robots from a legal perspective to realize a symbiotic society between humans and robots. Firstly, I’ll illustrate the legal challenges of Human-Robot Interactions, such as privacy, discrimination, and safety. Next, I’ll explore solutions to the legal challenges, including principles and guidelines for developers and users of intelligent robots. Finally, I’ll propose the framework of governance of Human-Robot Interactions for realizing a symbiotic society to protect personal autonomy and human rights.

Brief bio:

Satoshi NARIHARA is an associate professor of information law at Kyushu University. After completing the Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies, the University of Tokyo, he served as an assistant professor at the Interfaculty Initiative in Information Studies, the University of Tokyo and a senior researcher at the Institute for Information and Communications Policy, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. He has been studying information law, comparing US law, EU law, and Japanese law. His research focuses on freedom of expression, privacy and data protection, and legal issues of Artificial Intelligence. He has published his book, Freedom of Expression and Architecture (Keiso Shobo, 2016) and many academic papers related to information law.