From high-tech washing machines, to digital voice assistants, robots have become integral parts of many of our daily lives. But while these technologies have proven useful, their increasing intelligence has led to concerns of robots taking our jobs and even robot uprisings.

In this episode, David is joined by human-robot communication expert Dr Eleanor Sandry, to discuss whether this fiction has any merit to it.

• Today’s most egregious misuses of robots (4.50)
• If we should be concerned about robots getting smarter (11.03)
• Robot design and the rise of the ‘uncanny valley’ (14.52)
• Why humans should collaborate with machines to create a positive future (20.18)
• If robots have the potential to become fully ‘self-aware’ (23.50)

Learn more* Curtin X: Communicating with Robots and Bots * Sandry, E.: Robots and Communication * Zigzaggery: Emotional Robot Design * Newsweek: Saudi Arabia gives citizenship to a non-muslim, English-speaking robot

Got any questions, or suggestions for future topics?Email thefutureof@curtin.edu.au.

Curtin University supports academic freedom of speech. The views expressed in The Future Of podcast may not reflect those of the university.

Music: OKAY by 13ounce Creative Commons — Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported — CC BY-SA 3.0 Music promoted by Audio Library

You can read the full transcript for the episode here.