Program Service Robots to Socialize

Consumers value receiving services from people who demonstrate social skills. So as robotic devices take on consumer service functions, let’s equip those robots with social intelligence. Researchers at University of Bristol and University of Bologna define social intelligence in a robot as the ability to understand human emotions, respond to social cues, and in other ways maintain rapport with a person.
     This definition came from the researchers’ statistically-supported distinction among types of artificial intelligence. Verbal-linguistic intelligence allows a robot to accurately interpret instructions and information provided by the consumer and to respond in readily understandable ways to the consumer. Logic-mathematical intelligence is required for the robot to solve complex problems presented by the consumer. If the robot will be moving through space, such as to retrieve items for a customer’s store merchandise exchange or transport a disabled patient in a long-term care facility, visual-spatial intelligence is essential. And the researchers give the label processing-speed intelligence to a robot’s ability to promptly complete basic repetitive tasks.
     People’s emotional responses differ by the type of AI the robot is called upon to demonstrate. High social intelligence is the most influential of the five types in generating emotional attachment to a service provider. High processing-speed intelligence makes the most difference in avoiding negative consumer emotions such as frustration.
     High social intelligence is the most expensive of the five to build into a robot, so build it in only when necessary. This depends on both task demands and stakeholder expectations. In a limited-service setting, customers expect efficient operations and might perceive a robot which attends to their feelings as interfering with productivity. At the same time, intelligences like verbal-linguistic and logic-mathematical might be necessary for even the low-cost provider to meet the expectations of efficiency.
     When empathy is called for, developing social intelligence in a robot is worthwhile. Empathy exhausts the humans who practice it. Psychologist Adam Waytz reported a survey of nurses which shows compassion fatigue is strongly associated with job turnover. Robots don’t get tired. Programming into a service robot the language of empathy is challenging. But surely it can be done. Consider how decades ago, common opinion was that computer translation among foreign languages was a vain hope. The pessimism was misplaced.

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