AI, robotics and human augmentation
Report on joint CLAIRE/euRobotics panel discussion
An online panel discussion earlier this month considered the attractions of creating a generation of robots that look and act like humans, while also posing questions about the practicalities that need to be understood.
Wolfram Burgard, Professor of Robotics and AI, University of Technology Nuremberg joined fellow panellists Rainer Bischoff, Vice President Industry for euRobotics and Francesco Ferro, CEO, PAL Robotics. They addressed ten questions almost entirely posed ‘from the floor’ by members of the audience. In a lively interaction well-hosted by Holger Hoos, CLAIRE’s Board Chair, the panel explored the gap between a public fascination with humanoids and the scale of the challenges – economic, social and developmental – that probably places the arrival of humanoids in everyday settings a long way into the future, if at all. Around 40 or so people followed the live stream on either Zoom or YouTube and this number will grow as other members of the CLAIRE and euRobotics communities take the opportunity to watch the recording. The discussion lasted just under an hour, is now freely available to follow here on YouTube.