scholarly journals The political choreography of the Sophia robot: beyond robot rights and citizenship to political performances for the social robotics market

AI & Society ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaana Parviainen ◽  
Mark Coeckelbergh

AbstractA humanoid robot named ‘Sophia’ has sparked controversy since it has been given citizenship and has done media performances all over the world. The company that made the robot, Hanson Robotics, has touted Sophia as the future of artificial intelligence (AI). Robot scientists and philosophers have been more pessimistic about its capabilities, describing Sophia as a sophisticated puppet or chatbot. Looking behind the rhetoric about Sophia’s citizenship and intelligence and going beyond recent discussions on the moral status or legal personhood of AI robots, we analyse the performativity of Sophia from the perspective of what we call ‘political choreography’: drawing on phenomenological approaches to performance-oriented philosophy of technology. This paper proposes to interpret and discuss the world tour of Sophia as a political choreography that boosts the rise of the social robot market, rather than a statement about robot citizenship or artificial intelligence. We argue that the media performances of the Sophia robot were choreographed to advance specific political interests. We illustrate our philosophical discussion with media material of the Sophia performance, which helps us to explore the mechanisms through which the media spectacle functions hand in hand with advancing the economic interests of technology industries and their governmental promotors. Using a phenomenological approach and attending to the movement of robots, we also criticize the notion of ‘embodied intelligence’ used in the context of social robotics and AI. In this way, we put the discussions about the robot’s rights or citizenship in the context of AI politics and economics.

Author(s):  
Christian List

AbstractThe aim of this exploratory paper is to review an under-appreciated parallel between group agency and artificial intelligence. As both phenomena involve non-human goal-directed agents that can make a difference to the social world, they raise some similar moral and regulatory challenges, which require us to rethink some of our anthropocentric moral assumptions. Are humans always responsible for those entities’ actions, or could the entities bear responsibility themselves? Could the entities engage in normative reasoning? Could they even have rights and a moral status? I will tentatively defend the (increasingly widely held) view that, under certain conditions, artificial intelligent systems, like corporate entities, might qualify as responsible moral agents and as holders of limited rights and legal personhood. I will further suggest that regulators should permit the use of autonomous artificial systems in high-stakes settings only if they are engineered to function as moral (not just intentional) agents and/or there is some liability-transfer arrangement in place. I will finally raise the possibility that if artificial systems ever became phenomenally conscious, there might be a case for extending a stronger moral status to them, but argue that, as of now, this remains very hypothetical.


Author(s):  
Ivo Jirásek ◽  
Josef Oborný ◽  
Emanuel Hurych

Summary The philosophical concept of hermeneutics presents the opposite pole of human mental activities than positivism. Phenomenology, together with hermeneutics, also presents a kind of opposition to the positivistic reduction of learning the world. This paper focuses on the topic of authenticity of sport from these two (hermeneutic and phenomenological) approaches. As a basic theoretical platform Martin Heidegger’s book Time and Being is used. The authors develop a specific kind of categorization of the social groups engaged in sport events via the ancient concepts of “TECHNÉ ATHLETIKÉ” and “TECHNÉ GYMNASTIKÉ”. Two different phenomena: sport and “sport” are examined within the next part of the paper. There are some reasons mentioned in conclusions coming from the hermeneutic and phenomenological approach which help us to understand and accept the opinion that a kind of return to “techné gymnastiké” can support the authentic modes of being in human approach to sport.


AI & Society ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 927-936 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leila Ouchchy ◽  
Allen Coin ◽  
Veljko Dubljević

Abstract As artificial intelligence (AI) technologies become increasingly prominent in our daily lives, media coverage of the ethical considerations of these technologies has followed suit. Since previous research has shown that media coverage can drive public discourse about novel technologies, studying how the ethical issues of AI are portrayed in the media may lead to greater insight into the potential ramifications of this public discourse, particularly with regard to development and regulation of AI. This paper expands upon previous research by systematically analyzing and categorizing the media portrayal of the ethical issues of AI to better understand how media coverage of these issues may shape public debate about AI. Our results suggest that the media has a fairly realistic and practical focus in its coverage of the ethics of AI, but that the coverage is still shallow. A multifaceted approach to handling the social, ethical and policy issues of AI technology is needed, including increasing the accessibility of correct information to the public in the form of fact sheets and ethical value statements on trusted webpages (e.g., government agencies), collaboration and inclusion of ethics and AI experts in both research and public debate, and consistent government policies or regulatory frameworks for AI technology.


2006 ◽  
Vol 23 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 387-392 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mike Featherstone

The term global suggests all-inclusiveness and brings to mind connectivity, a notion that gained a boost from Marshall McLuhan's reference to the mass-mediated ‘global village’. In the past decade it has rapidly become part of the everyday vocabulary not only of academics and business people, but also has circulated widely in the media in various parts of the world. There have also been the beginnings of political movements against globalization and proposals for ‘de-globalization’ and ‘alternative globalizations’, projects to re-define the global. In effect, the terminology has globalized and globalization is varyingly lauded, reviled and debated around the world. The rationale of much previous thinking on humanity in the social sciences has been to assume a linear process of social integration, as more and more people are drawn into a widening circle of interdependencies in the movement to larger units, but the new forms of binding together of social life necessitate the development of new forms of global knowledge which go beyond the old classifications. It is also in this sense that the tightening of the interdependency chains between human beings, and also between human beings and other life forms, suggests we need to think about the relevance of academic knowledge to the emergent global public sphere.


2011 ◽  
Vol 19 (5) ◽  
pp. 1265-1271 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tiago Braga do Espírito Santo ◽  
Taka Oguisso ◽  
Rosa Maria Godoy Serpa da Fonseca

The object is the relationship between the professionalization of Brazilian nursing and women, in the broadcasting of news about the creation of the Professional School of Nurses, in the light of gender. Aims: to discuss the linkage of women to the beginning of the professionalization of Brazilian nursing following the circumstances and evidence of the creation of the Professional School of Nurses analyzed from the perspective of gender. The news articles were analyzed from the viewpoint of Cultural History, founded in the gender concept of Joan Scott and in the History of Women. The creation of the School and the priority given in the media to women consolidate the vocational ideal of the woman for nursing in a profession subjugated to the physician but also representing the conquest of a space in the world of education and work, reconfiguring the social position of nursing and of woman in Brazil.


Author(s):  
Belgin Arslan-Cansever

In today's information society, the media have important functions in the formation of certain perceptions by regulating the social lives of individuals. This occurs through messages that come in different formats (verbally, audibly, visually etc.) from the media. It is through the media literacy that enables reading messages from the media and interpreting them critically. The aim of this chapter is to provide some theoretical perspectives on media literacy. In this context, media literacy has been explained in detail. For this, primarily the differences between reading-writing and literacy are revealed. Besides conceptual media literacy, its necessity and some examples of practices in the world related to its education are mentioned. The chapter also addresses the basic paradigms in media literacy.


Author(s):  
Leslie Sklair

This chapter aims to fill in the substance of the first component of the corporate fraction of the transnational capitalist class (TCC) in architecture and urban design, the major architecture firms. While the starchitects and signature architects who produce unique architectural icons have attracted most media attention, they are a very small group within the profession. Here, the focus is on the much larger group of architecture firms producing the successful typical icons that are transforming cities all round the world in the era of capitalist globalization. Infrastructure is an increasingly large part of this, and I introduce the idea of celebrity infrastructure to highlight how bridges, transportation hubs, and waterside developments are mobilized as the Icon Project strives to turn them into consumerist spaces. Here the focus is more on the projects than the firms. As we saw in the previous chapter, contrary to the claims of many architecture critics and theorists, iconicity is not simply a creation of the media or corporate publicists. Architects play a significant part in the social production of iconic architecture, making some of them active participants in the Icon Project. As Dion Kooijman (2000: 829) argues, ‘architecture can form a true part of the “image building” by PR and marketing departments’. Behind the general discussion of the ways in which the four fractions of the TCC serve the interests of capitalist globalization through creating and promoting iconic architecture is the idea that, as well as the symbolism and aesthetics of iconic buildings and spaces, there is something else going on of great significance. Two pioneering studies, Blau (1984) and Gutman (1988), researched architecture as an industry in the United States. Judith Blau focused more on architects themselves, reporting a key finding that 98 per cent of respondents (she surveyed 400 architects in New York) said that architects were distinct from other professionals in terms of the ‘mystique of artistic creativity’ (Blau 1984: 49), but that most architects never realize this goal. This was seen to be a problem for architecture, particularly in capitalist societies.


2016 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gilberto de Lima Guimarães ◽  
Tania Couto Machado Chianca ◽  
Vania Regina Goveia ◽  
Kleyde Ventura de Souza ◽  
Isabel Yovana Quispe Mendoza ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT The study aimed to identify and understand, in the student's discourse, the social value and discuss it in the light of some of Max Scheler's assumptions. The senior students in Nursing take an existential place in the world, giving it meaning and sense through their opinion. The research is qualitative with a phenomenological approach. The subjects were 10 senior students from the Nursing course in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil. Data were collected from August to September, 2014, through interviews. Dilthey's hermeneutics was used to unveil the meaning of the statements. The social value emerged in the discourse, expressing solidarity based on sympathy. The social value was recognized as a constituent of the axiological field that founds the profession and is essential for nursing care. It is acknowledged that the "logic of reason" and the "logic of the heart" are complementary and combine the art and science of nursing.


Author(s):  
K. Harshita ◽  
R. Moni Pravallika ◽  
T. Lakshmi Prasanna ◽  
Sk. Nazma ◽  
S. Parvathi ◽  
...  

According to the world health organization, social distancing will be proven to be the only solution to fight with COVID-19. In this, an innovative localization method was proposing to track humans ‘position in an outdoor environment based on sensors is proposed with the help of artificial intelligence, this device is handy to maintain a social distancing. Duringcovid-19pandemicsituation, there is a need of maintaining social distance. If any person is approaching us, getting indication to maintain social distance is the need of the hour. Offices, public transports, grocery shops where the social distancing is mandatory. Since we can be cautious in front sideways to maintain the distance sensors are used in this model to alert the person to maintain social distance.


Author(s):  
Rosa Angela Fabio ◽  
Rossella Suriano

The rapid spread of the coronavirus pandemic has caused anxiety around the world. During lockdown, the media became a point of reference for people seeking information. However, little is known on the relationships between anxiety resulting from persistent media exposure to coronavirus-related programs and the effects produced on working memory. In this work, a total of 101 Italian citizens (53.7% female) aged between 18 and 45 years old, who were from 14 provinces in Italy, participated in an online survey. Participants were presented with media exposure and anxiety questionnaires and they were instructed to carry out working memory tasks (visual and auditory n-back). The results showed that media exposure is related to anxiety. It was also found that high levels of anxiety have a negative influence on the performance of both visual and auditory working memory tasks in terms of increased reaction times of responses and decreased accuracy. The results were critically discussed in the light of the Social Compensation Hypothesis.


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