Ken Goldberg & Abigail De Kosnik at TechCrunch
BCNM faculty Ken Goldberg and Director Abigail De Kosnik were two of four expert panelists asked to talk about "The Next Century of Robo-Exoticism." This presentation was part of the larger TechCrunch Sessions: Robotics + AI 2020 track. Robotics + AI is an annual, all-day event that invites technologists, researchers and interested parties to attend. Gail was an important voice on the lessons learned from history as we look to the future of robotics, warning the audience of the exotification of robots and the legacy of slave labor.
"The Next Century of Robo-Exoticism" also invited Arc Fusion's David Ewing Duncan and Survival Research's Mark Pauline to assess how robots are viewed culturally, using "robo-exoticism" as the foreground for their analysis. Robo-exoticism, according to TechCrunch, exaggerates both negative and positive attributes and reinforces old fears, fantasies and stereotypes.
Learn more about the day's agenda here.