{"id":178786,"date":"2021-02-15T19:20:01","date_gmt":"2021-02-15T16:20:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/will-robots-make-good-friends-scientists-are-already-starting-to-find-out\/"},"modified":"2021-02-15T19:20:01","modified_gmt":"2021-02-15T16:20:01","slug":"will-robots-make-good-friends-scientists-are-already-starting-to-find-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/will-robots-make-good-friends-scientists-are-already-starting-to-find-out\/","title":{"rendered":"#Will robots make good friends? Scientists are already starting to find out"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Will robots make good friends? Scientists are already starting to find out<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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\n Credit: Gennady Danilkin\/Shutterstock
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In the 2012 film “Robot and Frank”, the protagonist, a retired cat burglar named Frank, is suffering the early symptoms of dementia. Concerned and guilty, his son buys him a “home robot” that can talk, do household chores like cooking and cleaning, and reminds Frank to take his medicine. It’s a robot the likes of which we’re getting closer to building<\/a> in the real world.<\/p>\n

The film follows Frank, who is initially app<\/a>alled by the idea of living with a robot, as he gradually begins to see the robot as both functionally useful and social<\/a>ly companionable. The film ends with a clear bond between man and machine, such that Frank is protective of the robot when the pair of them run into trouble.<\/p>\n

This is, of course, a fictional story, but it challenges us to explore different kinds of human-to-robot bonds. My recent research<\/a> on human-robot relationships examines this topic in detail, looking beyond sex robots and robot love affairs to examine that most profound and meaningful of relationships: friendship. <\/p>\n

My colleague and I identified some potential risks\u2014like the abandonment of human friends for robotic ones\u2014but we also found several scenarios where robotic companionship can constructively augment people’s lives, leading to friendships that are directly comparable to human-to-human relationships.<\/p>\n

Philosophy of friendship<\/b><\/p>\n

The robotics philosopher John Danaher<\/a> sets a very high bar for what friendship means. His starting point is the “true” friendship first described by the Greek philosopher Aristotle, which saw an ideal friendship as premised on mutual good will, admiration and shared values. In these terms, friendship is about a partnership of equals. <\/p>\n

Building a robot that can satisfy Aristotle’s criteria is a substantial technical challenge and is some considerable way off\u2014as Danaher himself admits. Robots that may seem to be getting close, such as Hanson Robotics’ Sophia<\/a>, base their behaviour on a library of pre-prepared responses: a humanoid chatbot, rather than a conversational equal. Anyone who’s had a testing back-and-forth with Alexa or Siri will know AI still has some way to go in this regard.
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Aristotle also talked about other forms of “imperfect” friendship\u2014such as “utilitarian” and “pleasure” friendships\u2014which are considered inferior to true friendship because they don’t require symmetrical bonding and are often to one party’s unequal benefit. This form of friendship sets a relatively very low bar which some robots\u2014like “sexbots” and robotic pets\u2014clearly already meet.<\/p>\n

Artificial amigos<\/b><\/p>\n

For some, relating to robots is just a natural extension of relating to other things in our world\u2014like people, pets, and possessions. Psychologists have even observed how people respond naturally and socially towards media artefacts like computers and televisions<\/a>. Humanoid robots, you’d have thought, are more personable than your home PC.<\/p>\n

However, the field of “robot ethics” is far from unanimous on whether we can\u2014or should\u2014develop any form of friendship with robots. For an influential group of UK researchers who charted a set of “ethical principles of robotics<\/a>“, human-robot “companionship” is an oxymoron, and to market robots as having social capabilities is dishonest and should be treated with caution\u2014if not alarm. For these researchers, wasting emotional energy on entities that can only simulate emotions will always be less rewarding than forming human-to-human bonds. <\/p>\n

But people are already developing bonds with basic robots\u2014like vacuum-cleaning and lawn-trimming machines that can be bought for less than the price of a dishwasher. A surprisingly large number of people give these robots pet names\u2014something they don’t do with their dishwashers. Some even take their cleaning robots on holiday<\/a>.<\/p>\n


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