Synopsis

Artificial intelligence and robotics is everywhere: self-driving cars, weaponized military and police robots, manufacturing, medical robots, and in entertainment. The National Robotics Roadmap, which guides R&D funding for the country, and Department of Defense studies say that human-robot interaction is one of the most critical, but overlooked, areas in intelligent robotics. Human-robot interaction is about how people will work and collaborate with or around robots. It explores how we give commands to robots either explicitly or implicitly, how well they will be able to follow our directions and intent, and whether artificial intelligence will really lead to a robot uprising. It is a unique aspect of artificial intelligence with different frameworks and algorithms than those of deep learning or computer vision.

This book targets readers interested in artificial intelligence, from managers and investors trying to gain a better understanding of a new technology, to start-ups wanting to gain a competitive edge in human-friendly systems, to college and advanced high school students, or to those simply curious about AI and robotics. It can be used as a stand-alone text for self-study or home schooling or a supplemental text for a class in robotics or artificial intelligence. It uses the most famous and entertaining stories in the world about robots, including the ones that introduced the Three Laws of Robotics, as case studies. Each of the stories unintentionally illustrates one or more core concepts in human-robot interaction: how verbal and non-verbal communication works; the flaws in the Three Laws of Robotics; the Uncanny Valley; emotions; transparency and visibility as to what the robot is doing and how that leads to trust; the possibility of intentional deception; and if a robot can have full moral agency. The story is followed by description of how the science behind the core concept works at the level of a TED talk. In the last chapter, the book pulls together the individual concepts seen in the different stories into a comprehensive overview of the field of human-robot interaction, highlighting the challenges, and opportunities, of building artificially intelligent systems and the ethical implications. The book also provides study questions that can be used for self-study, home schooling, or in a classroom.

Prof. Robin R. Murphy is one of the founders of the field of human-robot interaction, an award winning textbook author, and has been declared one of the 30 Most Innovative Women Professors Alive Today by The Best Master’s Degrees and one of the most influential women in technology. She frequently appears on CNN, NBC, NPR, Popular Science, NY Times, and the popular press. Her TED talk on disaster robotics was cited by Chris Anderson as an example of a good talk in TED Talks: The Official TED Guide to Public Speaking. As an Innovative Teaching Faculty Fellow at Texas A&M, she pursues more engaging forms of education, particularly the use of science fiction to enable students to better visualize the abstract concepts in artificial intelligence, how the algorithms

Sales arguments

• The National Robotics Roadmap, which serves as the basis for government funding of robotics, lists human-robot interaction as a critical area for R&D that spans all types of robots and applications
• ABI research shows that the number of telecommuting robots in the workplace will likely increase by 1,000% in the next few years, with doctors, consultants, and other experts working through robots
• Numerous studies by the US Department of Defense conclude that improved human-robot collaboration is critical for military technology
• the press tends to sensationalize human-robot interaction, focusing on robot uprisings, rather than more realistic concerns and relies on self-proclaimed experts rather than scientists trained in the field
• Robotics Through Science Fiction has over 3,000 followers, highlighting the interest in learning through science fiction

Similar titles

• Robotics Through Science Fiction: Artificial Intelligence Explained Through Six Classic Robot Short Stories, Robin Murphy, MIT Press 2018. The proposed book does not compete with this, that book focused on AI in general; this proposed book focuses on a specific topic in AI
• Talking to Robots: Tales from Our Human-Robot Futures, David Ewing Duncan, Dutton 2019: That book is mostly speculation on what *might* happen, while this proposed book covers the current state of the practice and where research is headed- it is much more grounded.
• Moral Machines: Teaching Robots Right from Wrong, Wendell Wallach and Colin Allen , Oxford University Press, 2010: That book was written by philosophers and has misleading technical descriptions. The proposed book will cover some of the issues of ethics but from a solid foundation of what robots can really do now and are likely to be able to do in the future.

Audience

This book targets readers interested in artificial intelligence, from managers and investors trying to gain a better understanding of a new technology, to start-ups wanting to gain a competitive edge in human-friendly systems, to college and advanced high school students, or to those simply curious about AI and robotics.