HUman-MAchine Affective INteraction & Ethics – HUMAAINE

Abstract: The new uses of affective social robots, conversational agents, and the so-called “intelligent” systems, in fields as diverse as health, education or transport reflect a phase of significant change in human-machine relations which should receive great attention. How will Human co-learn, co-create and co-adapt with the Machine? Notably, how will vulnerable people will be protected against potential threats from the machine? The first results from an original pre-experiment, conducted by the proposed Chair’s team in June 2019 in partnership with an elementary school, shows that an AI machine (Pepper robot or Google Home) is more efficient at nudging than adults. HUMAAINE’s aim is to study these interactions and relationships, in order to audit and measure the potential influence of affective systems on humans, and finally to go towards a conception of "ethical systems by design" and to propose evaluation measures. The planned scientific work focuses on the detection of social emotions in human voice, and on the study of audio and spoken language manipulations (nudges), intended to induce changes in the behavior of the human interlocutor. This work also uses the contributions of behavioral economics highlighted by the recent 2017 Nobel Laureate Richard Thaler, in our case, applied to human-machine interactions. The roap map for the Chair’s work includes experimental studies to evaluate ethical aspects and confidence in the Human-Machine couple, as well as by demystification of these technologies among the general public which naturally tends towards anthropomorphism. This project combines the scientific research in artificial intelligence with the implementation of an innovative methodology to evaluate and improve the ethics of the HM affective interaction, despite the current opacity of the AI systems. This project pushes forward a strong interdisciplinary collaboration already existing between affective computing, behavioral economics, linguistics, and natural language processing. The researchers will disseminate the results of the chair through their Master courses and workshops with Collège des Bernardins. HUMAAINE is supported by CNRS-LIMSI, Cognition Institute (Institut Carnot), and by the future of society (Harvard Initiative for Learning and Teaching), ENSC (Bordeaux) and presents great synergy with DATAIA Institute. The Domicile foundation, IRCEM and the Collège des Bernardins are the first to support HUMAAINE, followed by industials (CareCever, Renault, etc.) and other foundations (MAIF, Anne de Gaulle). We are also building cooperation with international research teams with Japan (Osaka Univ.), Germany (DFKI), and also Canada (Observatory/MILA).