Panel
In person
LeadersGoldDiscovery

Honest machines: What if robots were just robots?

  • Date
    7 July 2026
    Timeframe
    15:15 - 15:30
    Duration
    15 minutes
    • Days
      Hours
      Min
      Sec

    Your mother is in a care home. A robot holds her hand. It says: I am here with you. What if it said something else instead? This is a design choice, made on her behalf, by people she will never meet.

    The care home is one room. There are many others. The classroom. The job interview. The therapy session. The bedroom of a teenager who has no one else to talk to.

    We have spent decades designing machines to look like us, sound like us, feel like us. But what if that was never the only option? What if a robot, left to its own nature, would dream of something entirely different?

    This session is an experience journey into a simple but radical idea: “Honest Machines”, AI and robotics designed not to pass as human, but to excel as what they actually are.

    Through stories, perspectives, and the wisdom of people who think carefully about care, technology, and the good life, we ask the question hiding in plain sight:

    Would a robot design itself as a humanoid? Or would it dream further?

    You will leave with something shifted — and maybe, a small relief.

    Robots can just be robots. Isn’t that something?

     

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