Who’s Afraid of Robots? - Victoria Baines

Jan 10, 2025

In this engaging discussion, Victoria Baines, IT Livery Company Professor of Information Technology and Senior Research Associate at Jesus College, Cambridge, dives into humanity's complex relationship with robots. She uncovers the historical roots of automatons, from ancient myths to modern interpretations. Baines explores emotional attachments we form with robot companions and discusses the psychological unease surrounding lifelike machines, emphasizing the balance between fascination and fear in our evolving engagement with artificial intelligence.

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Intro

00:00 • 3min

Mythical Automatons and Their Technological Echoes

02:59 • 6min

Automata: From Ancient Wonders to Modern Reflections

09:04 • 23min

The Emotional Complexity of Robot Companionship

32:24 • 5min

The Uneasy Dance: Humans and Robots

37:50 • 11min

Watch the Q&A session here: https://youtu.be/d6Ao4KmGXBc

Artificial Intelligence is a very recent invention…or is it? Humans have been fascinated by intelligent machines for thousands of years. Some exist only in our collective imagination, in art and literature. Others have seen the light of day as mechanical marvels, although a few were later exposed as elaborate frauds. The robots of today might not be what our ancestors imagined. This lecture argues that the relationship between humans and machines has always been complex, and that we still can’t decide whether we really want them to be like us.

This lecture was recorded by Victoria Baines on 7th January 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.

Victoria is IT Livery Company Professor of Information Technology.

Victoria is a Senior Research Associate of the Intellectual Forum at Jesus College, Cambridge, a Senior Research Fellow of the British Foreign Policy Group, and a Fellow of the British Computer Society. She is also Visiting Fellow at Bournemouth University’s School of Computing, a former Visiting Research Fellow at Oxford University, and was a guest lecturer at Stanford University in 2019 and 2020. She is a graduate of Trinity College, Oxford and holds a doctorate from the University of Nottingham. She serves on the Safety Advisory Board of Snapchat, the Advisory Board of cybersecurity provider Reliance Cyber, and is a trustee of the Lucy Faithfull Foundation.

The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/afraid-robots

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