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Every day, there’s another story about how AI is changing the digital world — but what happens when that AI takes physical form?

That’s the premise of an upcoming where three University of Calgary experts will dig into the topic of humanoid robots and how they’ll transform society. Technology companies around the world are already developing and testing humanoid robots for everything from manufacturing to domestic tasks — and even military applications. 

The April 2 webinar, hosted by as part of its series, will explore the potential impact of humanoid robots from a variety of angles, including technical, sociological and economic considerations. How soon could humanoid robots enter our homes and workplaces, what will they be able to do and how much will they cost? 

Or, at a deeper level, how will we interact with them, trust them and feel safe around them? Will they cause wide-scale unemployment, or will they provide limitless labour to enable a utopian existence for humans?

Panelists , PhD; , BA’08, MA’10, PhD’15; and , PhD’99 — all UCalgary faculty members — will unpack all these questions and more, in addition to viewing and commenting on video clips of cutting-edge robots in action.

AI and robotics are drivers for UCalgary research

For Charbonneau, who researches human-robot interactions in the , the topics lie at the heart of her research. 

“At a very high level, what I’m trying to do is develop robots that can interact with people not just socially, but physically in a way that’s safe, and where people know what’s going on,” she says.

Fellows, who works at the , will bring an economic perspective to the discussion. He notes that, even if humanoid robots prove to be the transformative technology some futurists imagine, there are already economic predictors for how the impacts may unfold. 

“Broadly speaking, the integration of autonomous systems has been a long-term trend in both personal and work situations. From a microeconomics perspective, new technologies can be quite disruptive during a period of transition,” he says.

To trust or not to trust AI

Gavrilova, a computer scientist in the who researches biometrics, cybersecurity and trustworthy AI, believes the topic bears serious consideration. 

“When AI becomes embodied, safety and trust become paramount,” Gavrilova says. “If an AI system makes a consequential decision about someone, we need to understand how that decision was made. What data was used? Was there bias? Can we trust the outcome?”

From humanoid robots’ transformative potential to their associated risks, the discussion will highlight UCalgary’s excellence in the areas of human-computer interactions, cybersecurity and economics research.

The webinar takes place at 12 p.m., MT, on Thursday, April 2. is open to the public.