Publish at February 19 2025 Updated February 19 2025
The question of robots and their ability to function automatically is a given, but today the debate is moving in the opposite direction, imagining a world in which robots lose automatism and gain adaptability.
In a world where collaboration between humans and robots reigns supreme, it's quite conceivable that this collaboration will be atypical insofar as, instead of operating automatically, robots require more frequent human intervention. In educational terms, this will require a reconfiguration of learning about the relationship between the two. This will lead to a change of approach in educational systems with content related to the field of robotics: the status of the robot will have to be redefined.
At another level, especially in the professional world, collaboration is becoming more advanced, for example in the medical sector. If we take the case of the neurosurgery trainee who is accompanied by a more experienced person, the collaboration between robot and human reaches another level of sensitivity, since the robot, now lacking automatism, would be more inclined to ask questions, since we're entering a world in which robots can think.
The hyper-collaboration brought about by the de-automation of robots will take them to an unsuspected stage of interaction with humans. We are entering a world in which robots are no longer fundamentally considered as such, since they require interaction with humans to function and produce results. In other words, it becomes more human not because it has a soul and a conscience, but precisely because it demands more from humans in order to function.
In keeping with this line of thought, Emmanuelle Grangier, a visual artist and choreographer working in an artistic world where she works in synergy with robots, doesn't reduce them to mere productivity machines, but also to beings in their own right that enable humans, in the artistic world, to re-establish links with what it means to "make work".
In other words, despite its difference, the robot should remind us of the human, because, ultimately, the de-automatization of robots implies a greater human contribution to robot tasks, and consequently a humanization of the latter in terms of the new links that should be forged.
When asked about the relationship between robots and humans, Gentianne Venture, a professor at the University of Tokyo with over 25 years' experience in the world of robotics, acknowledges that, in a way, robots will change our perception of what it means to be human.
In this vein, some humanoid robots such as Sophia from Hanson Robotic have the ability to mimic female facial expressions and can even maintain eye contact during a conversation. From this point of view, we are more than ever immersed in the humanization of robots. Although they are non-biological beings, their contact with them and their character could make us forget their nature.
Should we go one step further and consider robot-human fusion, as Elon Musk suggests, given that robots would ultimately become ever closer to humans? While this seems a possibility to some, others are far more skeptical and doubtful. Still further, some fear the destruction of humans by robots. The future certainly holds some huge surprises in store.
Illustration: image generated by Meta AI
Sources
Usbek & Rica - "Robots question both our origins and our future as humans"
https://usbeketrica.com/fr/article/le-robot-interroge-a-la-fois-nos-origines-et-notre-devenir-humain
And if robots manage to understand our emotions
https://www.lepoint.fr/high-tech-internet/les-robots-remplaceront-ils-bientot-nos-animaux-de-compagnie-03-02-2025-2581460_47.ph
The top seven most sophisticated humanoid robots
https://www.robot-magazine.fr/top-7-robots-humanoides/
The day robots will destroy us (or not)
https://medium.com/la-biblioth%C3%A8que-des-robots/le-jour-o%C3%B9-les-robots-nous-tueront-ou-pas-89ad4d29e0a8
The day robots will think
https://www.letemps.ch/sciences/jour-robots-penseront-0
A better strategy for using robots
https://www.hbrfrance.fr/innovation/une-strategie-plus-pertinente-pour-utiliser-les-robots-60714
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