Dr. Cynthia Breazeal is founder and CEO of Jibo, Inc. She is also an Associate Professor at the MIT Media Lab where she directs the Personal Robots Group. Breazeal is recognized as a prominent innovator at the intersection of technology and society as the pioneer of Social Robotics. Her research spans both the creation of intelligent and socially responsive robots, as well as studying their impact on contributing to people’s quality of life across education & learning, creativity, health, telecommunications, aging, entertainment, play, and more. Jibo, Inc. brings the technologies, design insights, and user experience of social robots to the home as the world’s first family robot. As an open platform, Jibo enables 3rd party developers to bring the engagement and emotional lift of social robots to their apps and services.
The ability of autonomous robots to interact and work effectively with people is increasingly important: from improving worker productivity with robot teammates, to enhancing people’s quality of life with personal robots. Social robots interact with people in an interpersonal way to support the socio-affective dimension of human experience. This, in turn, impacts human behavior, attitudes and performance in intriguing ways. Such findings encourage us to think quite differently about robots, beyond performing physical tasks, to empowering us on a deeper human level: to learn better, to stay healthier, to care for and connect with one another with greater engagement, and more. The benefits of social robots could be transformative in areas of significant societal need that demand critical innovation. Nonetheless, this also motivates a thoughtful dialog about the desired role of intelligent, emotive technology in our lives, our relationship with it, and possible consequences.
