Ayanna Howard is Professor and chair of the school of interactive computing at Georgia Institute of Technology and a self-proclaimed “roboticist extraordinaire.”
She has been working in the field for at least 20 years, specifically in the domain of human robot interaction. “My purpose is to take what I know about humans and information and make sure that my robot understands that.” Her robots engage with children with special needs to assist them with education, healthcare, therapy and exercise.
“Technology is not perfect and these robots will not be either.”
Howard said she feels it is important for people to manage their expectations when it comes to robots as many have the view that they should be infallible. “Somehow we believe that robots will be smarter than they are and not have mistakes but how many times have you had to reset your phone or your computer? Technology is not perfect and these robots will not be either.”
Howard made clear that robots inherit flaws from the humans who create them and the data they are programmed with. “We train these robots based on human values, human concepts, human data, human understanding but it also means that all of our historical biases are put into the machine,” she
said.
Thank you for your input
Thank you for your feedback
DataIQ is a trading name of IQ Data Group Limited
10 York Road, London, SE1 7ND
Phone: +44 020 3821 5665
Registered in England: 9900834
Copyright © IQ Data Group Limited 2024