116. Social robots and care: promises and pitfalls
Boris Hauray, Inserm; NAONORI KODATE, University College Dublin; Sébastien Dalgalarrondo, EHESS/CNRS; Martin Chevallier, EHESS - Centre d'Etude des Mouvements Sociaux
Posted: February 28, 2022 Accepted Languages: English/Inglés/Inglês, Spanish/Español/Espanhol
For several decades, the promise that robots could substitute humans in factories and respond to human needs for social interactions has attracted significant attention from scientists, innovators, technology companies and the media. A growing body of “social robots”, typically humanoid and animaloid devices, have thus been developed and introduced in several domains (e.g. nursing homes, autism therapeutics, home supports, public reception and sexuality). The promise of “social robots” has been: the progress of Artificial Intelligence, economic growth, responding to the fading of family relationships and to ageing societies, dreams of having personal service device with full availability, and so forth.
However, after more than two decades of experiments and sensational claims, the introduction of social robots in the society seems to be characterized by a form a disillusionment: sales are not booming, the use of robots in healthcare is peripheral and its benefit is doubted, ethical criticisms remain strong, and so forth. These limits invite social scientists to reconsider what is encapsulated in the human interactions targeted (and more specifically what is conceptualized as care), and to examine how technologies can (or cannot) respond to these needs. This panel aims to gather contributions that analyze the socio-technological promise of social robots, to assess their benefits and pitfalls in reality, and to reflect on the discrepancies between these two dimensions. It particularly welcomes submissions rooted in solid empirical research and which pay attention to the various cultural environment in which the promise of social robots is introduced.
