Communication Theory and the Activity, Agency, and Alterity of Machines

• In Event: Artificial Intelligence, Machines, and Platforms

Abstract

In recent years, machines encountered in people’s everyday lives are increasingly likely to be described as “intelligent” or “smart”, being autonomous or semi-autonomous. While humans have a tendency to anthropomorphize any machine, naming cars and describing their shortcomings as foibles, the response is even more likely for machines with a level of autonomy that imbues them with ‘liveliness’ and ‘personality’. Arguments regarding how people relate to machines, and how they might or should relate to machines in the future abound (Turkle, 2011; Carpenter, 2013). Ethical questions are raised not only about the best way to design machines to interact safely with people, but also about the need to consider how humans should treat machines, in particular those defined as robots (Delvaux, 2016). This paper therefore examines communication theoretical and philosophical approaches to human-robot interactions that offer ways to understand the agency of machines, while continuing to recognize their alterity.

Author

• Eleanor Sandry, Curtin University