Cafe Scientifique Q&A: "Robot Futures"

Carnegie Science Center's Podcast

Illah Reza Nourbakhsh This is the Q&A portion of Dr. Nourbakhsh's presentation on 'Robot Futures'. The ambition of modern robotics goes beyond copying humans, beyond the effort to make walking, talking androids that are indistinguishable from people. Future robots will have superhuman abilities in both the physical and digital realms. They will be embedded in our physical spaces, with the ability to go where we cannot, and will have minds of their own, thanks to artificial intelligence. They will be fully connected to the digital world, far better at carrying out online tasks than we are. In his new book Robot Futures, the Illah Reza Nourbakhsh considers how we will share our world with these creatures, and how our society could change as it incorporates a race of stronger, smarter beings. Nourbakhsh imagines a future that includes adbots offering interactive custom messaging; robotic flying toys that operate by means of "gaze tracking"; robot-enabled multimodal, multicontinental telepresence; and even a way that nanorobots could allow us to assume different physical forms. In Robot Futures, Nourbakhsh follows each glimpse into the robotic future with an examination of the underlying technology and an exploration of the social consequences of the scenario. Nourbakhsh is the director of the Community Robotics, Education and Technology Empowerment (CREATE) lab and head of the Robotics Masters Program in The Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. His current research projects explore community-based robotics, including educational and social robotics and ways to use robotic technology to empower individuals and communities. His other past projects include serving as a robotics group leader at NASA/Ames Research Center as well as the founder and chief scientist of Blue Pumpkin Software, Inc., which was acquired by Witness Systems, Inc. Nourbakhsh earned his bachelor's, master's and doctorate in computer science at Stanford University and has been a faculty member of Carnegie Mellon since 1997. Recorded at Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh, PA on September 9, 2013.