I'm a tech creator
The issue of racial and gender bias in AI algorithms and the data used to train large language models, such as ChatGPT, has made headlines for researchers. However, the same problems exist in social robots, which have physical bodies modeled after non-threatening versions of humans or animals and are designed to interact with humans.
A subfield of social robots, known as socially assisted robots, is designed to interact with an increasingly diverse group of people. The noble aspiration of those working in the field is to "create machines that best help people help themselves," writes one of the pioneers, Maja Matari. These robots are already being used to help people with autism spectrum disorder, children with special needs, and stroke patients who need physical **.
However, the appearance of these robots and the way they interact with people do not reflect the basic characteristics of social diversity. As a sociologist who studies human-robot interactions, I think the problem is only going to get worse. Autism diagnosis rates are now higher among children of color in the U.S. than among white children. These children are likely to interact with white robots.
Why robots tend to be white Given the diversity they will be exposed to, why do Kaspar robots designed specifically to interact with children with autism have rubber** similar to white people? Why are the robots Nao, Pepper and Icub used in schools and museums wearing shiny white plastic? In the book The White Character of AI, technophilist Stephen C**e and science communication researcher Kanta Dihal discuss racial bias in the field of AI and robotics, noting that stock images of reflective white surfaces of robots predominate.
What's going on here?
One problem is the existing robots. Most robots are not developed from scratch, but are purchased by engineering labs for projects, improved through custom software, and sometimes integrated with other technologies such as robotic hands or **. As a result, the robotics team was constrained by the design choices made by the original developers (Aldebaran of Pepper, Italian Institute of Technology at ICUB). These design choices tend to follow a clinical, clean look with shiny white plastic that resembles other technological products such as the original iPod.
In an article I presented at the 2023 American Sociological Association Congress, I referred to this as "the poverty of engineering ideas."
How Society Imagines Robots Anthropologist Lucy Suchman discusses the "cultural imagination" of what robots should look like in her classic book on human-computer interaction, which has been updated to include chapters on robots. The cultural imagination is shared through representation in texts, images, and films, which together shape people's attitudes and perceptions. For robots, the cultural imagination comes from science fiction**.
This cultural imagination can be contrasted with the more practical question of how computer science and engineering teams view robotic bodies, a perspective that Neda Atanasoski and Kalindi Vora calls "engineering conceptions." This is a hotly contested area in feminist scientific research, such as Jennifer Rhee's The Robot Imagination and Atanasoski and Vora's Alternative Humanity, which criticize the gender and racial assumptions that lead people to design service robots (designed to perform everyday tasks) as female.
The cultural imagination of shaping robots white, which is actually often female, dates back to European antiquity, along with the climactic explosion of modern industrialization and cinema. From the first mention of the word "robot" in Auguste Villiers de Lille-Adam's 1886 Eve of the Future, to the introduction of the word by Karel Chepek in his 1920 play The Universal Robot of Rousanne, to Tia von Halb's 1925 Metropolis of the Robot Maria, which was the basis for her husband Fritz Lang's famous 1927 film of the same name, the fictional robot soon became feminine and humbled.
Perhaps the archetype of this cultural imagination dates back to ancient Rome. A poem in Ovid's Metamorphoses (8 AD) depicts a statue of Galateaa made of "snow-white ivory", whose creator, Pygmalion, fell in love with her. Pygmalion prayed to Aphrodite to resurrect Galatea, and his wish was granted. There are many literary, poetic, and cinematic adaptations of the story, including the first stunt effects in Meliers' 1898 film. Paintings depicting this moment, such as those by Raoux (1717), Regnault (1786) and Burne-Jones (1868-70 and 1878), emphasize the fairness of Galatea's complexion.
An Interdisciplinary Approach to Diversity and Inclusion How can this cultural heritage be eradicated? After all, diversity and inclusion should be the goal of all human-computer interactions, according to engineers Tahira Reid and James Gibert. But with the exception of robots that resemble Japanese in appearance, there are very few robots designed for non-whites. And Japanese robots tend to follow lowly female gender stereotypes.
The solution is more than just wrapping the machine in brown or black plastic. The problem goes deeper. Bina48's "custom character robot", modeled after millionaire African-American wife Bina Aspen, is compelling, but its voice and interaction are limited. A series of dialogues between Bina48 and African-American artist Stephanie Dinkins became the basis for an installation.
In one of the conversations, the absurdity of talking to a headless animated head about racism becomes apparent – it doesn't actually have personal experience to speak of, but its AI-powered answer mentions the racist experiences that a no-man went through growing up. These are implanted memories, just like the "memories" of the clone robots in the "Blade Runner" movie.
Social science approaches can help generate more inclusive 'engineering ideas', as I discussed at the 'Being Human' festival in Edinburgh in November 2022. For example, in collaboration with Guy Hoffman, a roboticist at Cornell University, and Caroline Yan Zheng, a PhD design student at the Royal College of Art, we invited people to contribute to a publication called Critical Perspectives on Emotional Experience Interactions.
An enduring theme in that collaboration and other work is how people's bodies communicate with others through gestures, expressions, and speechization, and how this differs across cultures. In this case, making the appearance of the robot reflect the diversity of the people who benefit from their presence is only one aspect, what else can be done to diversify the forms of interaction? In addition to making robots less prevalent white and feminine, social scientists, interaction designers, and engineers can work together to create more cross-cultural sensitivities in things like gestures and touch.
Such a promise of work makes human-computer interaction even less scary and unusual, especially for people who need a new generation of socially assisted robots.
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