While it may still seem a distant scenario, robots are getting closer to being part of our day to day in fields such as health, security, education and leisure.Its use in child teaching, elderly care, street surveillance and as attendees in hospitals, where they have been very helpful during the Covid-19 pandemic in the provision of medicines and patient monitoring and patient monitoring are being studied.
As the complexity of their interactions with people increases, robots need certain communicative skills and skills to express themselves and achieve the objective for which they were designed
As the complexity of their interactions with people increases, machines need certain communicative skills and skills to express themselves and achieve the objective for which they were designed.One of these properties, and one that has aroused the interest of many scientists and companies, is the persuasion that, in robots, refers to the ability to modify the attitude or behavior of humans.
A recent study in the field of persuasive robotics, published in Science Robotics, explores the attitude they should show to convince us and, more specifically, in the effect produced by robots with authority functions - like that of nurse, teacher or guard—.But would we listen to a machine?
The hard hand does not work
Social robots may need, for example, to convince a patient to take medication, order a classroom or give indications to workers in a work environment."If you put a robot in a social context enough time, sooner or later a situation will arise in which persuasion will be inherent in the role it plays," explains the researcher at Toronto Shane Saunderson, co -author of this work to SINC.
In his study, Saunderson and his colleague Goldie Nejat made a series of experiments in which the Pepper humanoid robot offered different incentives (awards or penalties) to the participants in exchange for carrying out a series of tasks.They wanted to know a little more about why we treat machines very similar to humans on many occasions, but not in others.
In an experiment, the researchers found that the automatons got better results when they showed a fellowship and non -authoritarian behavior
They found that the automatons got better results when they showed a behavior of companionship and not authoritarian.The latter caused rejection.A possible explanation is that people did not believe that their authority was legitimate.In addition, they perceived a dominant attitude (which qualified as "inhuman" and "sinister") and felt threatened.
In social psychology, almost a hundred persuasion strategies have been described, also known as obtaining compliance, that is, aimed at altering the behavior of others.For this, tools such as logic, emotions, threats, rewards or authority can be used, whose effectiveness is in turn influenced by nonverbal forms of expression such as gestures or body posture.
The appearance matters
In research between robots and people, the effect of many of these factors has been tested.A study published in May of this year in PLOS One verified that the participants smiled and paying more attention to the demands of humanoid machines when they touched them.
A team from the Technological University of Eindhoven (Netherlands) and Singapore combined two strategies, looks and gestures, to persuade a group of individuals to whom they told a story about the negative consequences of lying.They discovered that the message fasted more when the robot maintained visual contact, regardless of its body expression.
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For María Malfaz, a social robotics researcher at the Carlos III University of Madrid, "the emotional expression between a social and human robot is as fundamental as in communication between humans."Machines can use facial expressions, voice or body gestures to transmit emotions, but their repertoire is limited and sometimes may not be easily recognizable.
So that we feel comfortable in the interaction with an artificial being, it is key that it is not threatening, that is not very large or too far from our idea of a person, a pet or a child
But, according to this expert to SIN, "the main thing is aesthetics", which must be in harmony with voice and movements.So that we feel comfortable in the interaction with an artificial being, it is crucial "that is not threatening, that is not very large and that is not too far from our idea of a person, a pet or a child," according to the situation."It must be pleasant to the eye, but it will also depend on the user to which it is addressed," says the researcher.
In the field of persuasion, the aspect of the machine will also depend on its objective and the type of strategy you use.A robot of the size of an insect would hardly be threatening, while it would be difficult to associate qualities such as tenderness or compassion to a Terminator type.
Human biases
A risk that machines look like people is that they are the subject of human biases.It is the result of what in social robotics has been baptized as the paradigm that computers are social agents or home (from English computers are social actors), emerged from a study published in 2000 by Clifford Nass and Youngme Moon, of theStanford and Harvard universities, respectively.These postural researchers that people apply the same social norms and expectations to machines as to humans, although these do not have feelings, intentions or motivations.
We judge with the same stereotypes to female and male robots as to men and women
Shane Saunderson, investigador de la Universidad de TorontoSe ha evidenciado, sobre todo, en el caso del género. “We judge with the same stereotypes to female and male robots as to men and women”, dice Saunderson. Un estudio en el que se utilizó un robot guardia de seguridad en una universidad de Singapur confirmó que las características masculinas eran más aceptadas entre los estudiantes.
The authors of another investigation, published by the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, verified the influence of the genre of a humanoid machine that requested donations to the visitor at the Boston Science Museum.Men were moreIt is no accident that many virtual browsers and assistants have a female voice default.
Adaptive persuasion and ia
Although at the moment it has been applied limitedly in the field of persuasion, artificial intelligence (AI) could change the rules of the game.Saunderson is the author of another investigation, even in review, which explores the idea of adaptive persuasion, so that machines would learn from the results and improve their strategies."It is expected that these types of systems will be more convincing and effective because they can adapt their behavior to the specific needs and context of each individual, as we would do," explains the researcher.
Thanks to artificial intelligence, robots would learn from the results and improve their strategies
In the future, in addition, machines could use our social or purchasing data data to produce some effect on us.But if your ability to convince us were so effective, could it be considered a form of manipulation?Research in persuasive robotics have been accompanied since its inception by studies that analyze their ethical implications.The line between what can be considered acceptable and is not very fine, and depends on the authors.
“Robots are scheduled by people.If they do something, it is because the person who has written the program has wanted it, ”says Malphaz, who works developing decision -making systems for autonomous robots.
For Saunderson, all moral issues can be resolved with transparency.It should be clear who operates a robot with persuasive qualities, what capabilities it has and what strategies, data and technologies use to achieve its goal.Unfortunately, "the technological industry is not doing a great job maintaining rigorous ethical practice, so a regulation will be needed," warns the US researcher.
Beyond studies, persuasive robots are not yet among us.But in reality we are already surrounded by persuasive technologies thanks to the Internet.Social networks and other companies collect user data to identify the best way to go to them or to show them personalized ads.Persuasion can be used with good purposes, but also to contribute to the control exercised by the digital world.