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When we call something ‘robotic’, that usually means a lot of things: rigid, calculating and maybe even a bit unfriendly. But when Angelica Lim thinks about robots, she thinks empathy.The Amii Canada CIFAR AI chair is the director of the ROSIE Lab (Robots with Social Intelligence and Empathy) at Simon Fraser University. Her goal is simple: to develop robots that understand how humans feel, think, and act, and use that to interact seamlessly with us. 

On the latest episode of Approximately Correct, Lim tells hosts Alona Fyshe and Scott Lilwal , that her interest in social robots grew from  childhood and seeing friendly robots in cartoons — including Rosie the Robot, the Jetson’s automaton housekeeper.“Most roboticists can go back and think of a robot that they grew up with in sci-fi that they really liked and  got them inspired,” she says. 

“It just so happens that the one that I was exposed to as a kid wasn't one of the Transformers or something, but a service robot.”

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Artificial intelligence has made great strides in understanding and using language in the past few years. But Lim points out that language is just a small part of communication. Humans use facial expressions, head movements and gestures when they interact with one another. Creating robots that can interact seamlessly with people will require a complex, nuanced understanding of all the ways that we express ourselves. That has led Lim to study the way that humans move and interact with one another: everything from awkward smiles to how people communicate when salsa dancing.

Lim says she doesn’t want a future where robots are our friends. But she does think we need to understand how artificial agents can communicate and work closely with people, while ensuring that the technology isn’t used to manipulate.

Approximately Correct: An AI Podcast from Amii is hosted by Alona Fyshe and Scott Lilwall. It is produced by Lynda Vang, with video production by Chris Onciul. Subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.