Laurence Devillers, Professor of AI at Sorbonne University, researcher at LIMSI-CNRS, and member of the DATAIA office, will lead the seminar on September 24.

In a near future, socially assistive robotics/chatbots aims to address some critical gaps in care by automating supervision, coaching, motivation, and companionship aspects of interactions with the elderly, children, disabled people. Talk during social interactions naturally involves the exchange of propositional content but also and perhaps more importantly the expression of interpersonal relationships, as well as displays of emotion, affect, interest, etc. It is thus necessary that a bigger ethical thought is combined with the scientific and technological development of robots, to ensure the harmony and acceptability of their relation with the human beings. The new AI and Robotics applications in domains such as healthcare or education must be introduced in ways that build trust and understanding, and respect human and civil rights.