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With its Speaker Series, the TUM Institute for Ethics in Artificial Intelligence invites experts from all over the world to talk about ethics and governance of AI. These events serve as an important platform for sharing new research and exchanging knowledge.

The October session of the TUM IEAI Speaker Series will take place on 14th of October, 3pm (CET) virtually via Zoom. The topic of the session will be “To Trust a Robot: Examining Human-Robot Trust during Emergency Evacuations”.

We are pleased to announce that the speaker for this session is Alan R. Wagner, Professor of Aerospace Engineering and a Research Associate with The Pennsylvania State University. His research focuses on human-robot interaction, ethics, and aerial vehicle control and teaming applied. His work examines search and rescue and robot led emergency evacuation. His research has won several awards including being selected for by the Air Force Young Investigator Program, a Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award, and was described as the 13th most important invention of 2010 by Time Magazine. He received his Ph.D. in computer science from Georgia Institute of Technology. He also holds a master’s degree in computer science from Boston University and a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Northwestern University.

Wagner’s latest book, An Introduction to Ethics in Robotics and AI (Springer, 2021, with Christoph Bartneck, Christoph Lütge, and Sean Welsh), is meant to provide balanced and, at times, conflicting viewpoints as to the benefits and deficits of artificial intelligence through the lens of ethics.

Dr. Wagner’s presentation at the IEAI Speaker Series examines human-robot trust, presenting the concepts that underpin interpersonal trust and relating these ideas to human-robot interaction scenarios. His work looks at how and why people trust robots during emergencies and the ethical ramifications of developing robots that present themselves as trustworthy. He considers the problem of correct trust calibration – creating machines that promote correct calibration of trust by people. His talk will also discuss under and over trust. Under trust occurs when people lack trust in a trustworthy system, whereas overtrust describes a situation in which people place too much faith in a robot. Finally, he will discuss the ethical implications for society of trusting robots.

This event is being photographed and/or video recorded for archival, educational, and related promotional purposes. We also video stream many of these video recordings through the IEAI web site. By attending or participating in this event, you are giving your consent to be photographed and/or video recorded and you are waiving any and all claims regarding the use of your image by the Institute of Ethics in Artificial Intelligence. The IEAI, at its discretion, may provide a copy of the photos/footage upon written request.

The Zoom link will be sent to you at the day of the event.