The future of robots for good: The quest

Recent advances in perception and natural understanding are opening the doors to interactive, embodied agents that perform socially and economically beneficial tasks in human-centered environments. Robots have the potential to empower people across their lives – from the workplace to the home – augmenting human mobility, replacing rote tasks, and increasing access to information. They have arguably yet to deliver on this promise however, because interacting physically with humans in a safe, accessible and socially appropriate way remains exceedingly difficult. This session will discuss how recent advances in AI are accelerating advancements in this space and the challenges that remain.