Robots Assess Whether To Trust Or Distrust People
Samuele Vinanzi, Senior Lecturer in Robotics and AI at Sheffield Hallam University, told the Robot Talk podcast on 13 February 2026 about research on how robots determine whether to trust or distrust people. He described work in cognitive robotics focusing on emotional intelligence, intention reading and artificial trust and discussed his recent book, In Robots We Trust, which explores trust relationships between humans and robots.
Key Points
- 1Demonstrates robots evaluate human trustworthiness using cognitive models, emotion cues, and intention inference
- 2Highlights importance of artificial trust for safe human-robot collaboration and social interaction
- 3Advises integrating emotional intelligence and intention-reading into robot design and evaluation frameworks
Scoring Rationale
Research interview provides credible, practitioner-relevant insights but offers limited novel empirical results or deep technical detail.
Sources
Public references used for this report.
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