Why robots can be culturally insensitive – and how scientists are trying to fix it

By Henry Taylor, Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy, University of Birmingham
Masoumeh Mansouri, Associate Professor, School of Computer Science, University of Birmingham

A robot is chatting to an elderly British man in his bedroom. The robot has a cheery demeanour and a pleasantly high-pitched voice.

The robot – perhaps because of the man’s age – starts asking him about his memories of the second world war: “Please tell me what was the most difficult thing you and your family had to go through?” The elderly man goes on to talk about how his father was in the Royal Air Force and they didn’t see him for almost four years.

But…

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