Intentional Stance Towards Humanoid Robots: Lessons Learned from Studies in Human-Robot Interaction

With the reinassance of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and AI-empowered technologies, such as robots, we are all asking ourselves the question: What role will these new technologies play in our lives and in our society? On the one hand, we are excited about the new opportunities that AI and robots bring. On the other hand, there are understandable fears: What if the AI becomes too powerful? What if the robots become too human-like?

This book is centered around a theoretical framework of the Intentional Stance, initially proposed by Daniel Dennett, and addresses the timely question: How do we, humans, approach robots? Do we see them as intentional agents that can potentially become our social companions? Or do we rather approach them as tools, man-made artifacts? What does it take for a robot to make an impression that it is an intentional/social agent? Is it its appearance? Its behaviour? Or, perhaps (and quite likely), the way it interacts with the human? These questions are addressed across various chapters of book, each of which is then complemented by an inspiring conversation with one of the prominent academics and scholars: Daniel Dennett (Philosophy) - the originator of the concept of the Intentional Stance; Hiroshi Ishiguro (Robotics) - the creator of androids, David Gunkel (Robot-Ethics), Bertram Malle (Cognitive Science), Antonio Sgorbissa (Culturally-competent Social Robotics), Bill Vorn (Robotic Art).

The book discusses also some important ethical considerations to be made, and risks to be aware of. Do we actually want to create robots that are treated as intentional agents? What if the line between the human/robot categories becomes blurred? As intentional agents, should robots become also moral agents and legal persons in our societal and legal systems?

Professor Agnieszka Wykowska is the head of the unit ＂Social Cognition in Human-Robot Interaction＂ at the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT), in Genoa, Italy. She is also the Coordinator of the Centre for Human Technologies, at the IIT. Her background is in Cognitive Neuroscience (M.Sc. in 2006 from the Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich) and Philosophy (M.A. in 2001 from the Jagiellonian University, Cracow). She obtained a PhD in Psychology (2008) from the Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich. She is Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Social Robotics. Between 2022 and 2024 she served in the role of President of the European Society for Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience (ESCAN).

She is also a board member of the Association of ERC Grantees and a delegate to the European Research Area (ERA) Forum - an EU expert group shaping EU science policies. Her research foci are interdisciplinary, bridging psychology, cognitive neuroscience, robotics, and healthcare. She combines cognitive neuroscience methods with human-robot interaction to understand the human brain mechanisms in interaction with other humans and with technology. In 2016 she was awarded the ERC Starting grant ＂InStance: Intentional Stance for Social Attunement＂, a project that spanned six years and examined factors and conditions under which humans adopt the Intentional Stance towards humanoid robots. This book is a culmination of that project.