I've just spent a couple of days at the ICAPS PlanRob workshop. About 35 of us met together at King's College in London, and my paper on the Instinct Planner was one of 23 accepted papers.
Manuela Veloso gave the keynote talk. She talked about CoBots (robots that must cooperate with … Continue Reading ››
Last week I spent two days with 24 other 'early career' academics in a hotel in Swansea, South Wales. We each presented our research, learnt how to interact with the press, commercialise research, work with industry partners and make up lightening sketches. The event was the first of … Continue Reading ››
How to design trustworthy robot butlers that we won’t want to treat like humans
Today I had this article published … Continue Reading ››
This year seems to be rapidly getting very busy. In January, February and March I was flat out finishing my Arduino based R5 robot. We've been working with it on an ethics experiment. Many thanks to all those two participated in the research - your input was vital. We have a paper in review for that work now, … Continue Reading ››
I was recently interviewed for a new film about how AI impacts us today, and what the future may hold. Created by a Birmingham MA student, this film includes interviews from various academics in the field, including myself. It asks the questions everyone wants to ask about intelligent systems and robots; how they might change our … Continue Reading ››
I've just finished reading Daniel Dennett's weighty tome Consciousness Explained (1991). He uses almost 500 pages to explain and defend his 'Multiple Drafts Model' as an alternative to the widely assumed Cartesian Theatre model of conscious thought.
René Descartes was a 17th century philosopher who essentially postulated that … Continue Reading ››
Artificial intelligence is currently in the news. My PhD supervisor has even been on Newsnight. Yet it seems everyday people do not have any clear idea of what 'artificial intelligence' might be. I am fortunate to have been able to spend some time thinking about all this recently.
Firstly, lets try and nail down 'intelligence' a … Continue Reading ››
We've had some kinds of basic domestic robots available for some years, notably the iRobot Roomba that handily does your vacuuming (to a point anyway). However we are now starting to see devices (for that is what a robot is) with richer human interaction, and who's purpose is less utilitarian. … Continue Reading ››
