Dr. Andrei Korbut

Andrei Korbut

Public Communication with Anthropomorphic Robots as an Interactional Performance

The project focuses on the public events featuring anthropomorphic robots. These events embody attitudes and imaginaries of various audiences concerning artificial intelligence. To reveal them, the project deals with three aspects of such public events: (1) communicative practices, (2) media displays, and (3) public narratives.

First, I will consider the communicative structure of such events, using the framework of multimodal conversation analysis and interactional analysis. Second, these events will be considered as media presentations, using the framework of cultural sociology. And third, I will collect and analyze comments about these events on the social media, applying the framework of narrative and discourse analysis.

The results of the project will be presented as publications in scholarly journals and as papers at academic conferences. I will also launch a webpage on public events featuring anthropomorphic robots and compose recommendations for media reporters and science journalists covering the topic of anthropomorphic robots.

Research Results

In my project, I analyzed 87 publicly available videos featuring 9 anthropomorphic robots, as well as online users’ comments on these videos. The analysis of the videos showed that developers of anthropomorphic robots orchestrate public demonstrations of their machines to make them appear more autonomous and agentic than they really are. This is partly supported by the questions that present general public usually asks of anthropomorphic robots about the future of humanity. However, such alignment is mitigated by the fact that public interaction with anthropomorphic robots is full of breakdowns that human interactants have to overcome. The most common breakdowns are the robot’s inability to maintain topical continuity, to make proper eye contact, and to use laughter appropriately in conversation. Unlike immediate participants, online users focus on the general framework of public demonstrations of anthropomorphic robots and warn others about the dangers of these technologies.

  • Blog on the project: https://eyeontherobots.blog
  • Lecture “Robotic Technoperformances: Interactional Indeterminacies in Public Appearances of Anthropomorphic Robots” delivered at the RUSTlab seminar (June 22, 2023, Bochum).
  • Paper „Understanding Robots in Public: The Influence of Other Humans’ Presence on Human-Robot Interaction“ accepted for presentation at the 2nd TRR 318 Conference “Measuring Understanding” (November 6–7, 2023, Paderborn University).
  • Paper „Interactional Indeterminacies in Public Communication with Anthropomorphic Robots“ submitted for the special issue „Decoding Artificial Sociality“ of the journal „New Media & Society“.

Main Research Topic

  • Human-robot interaction
  • Conversational AI
  • Ethnomethodology
  • Conversation analysis

Curriculum Vitae

  • 2022–2023 — Lecturer, University of Bremen
  • 2022 — Associate Researcher, Digital Age Research Center (D!ARC), University of Klagenfurt
  • 2014 — PhD in Sociology (Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia). Thesis title: “The Concept of Constitutive Order in Ethnomethodological Tradition”
  • 2011–2022 — Senior Research Fellow, Center for Fundamental Sociology, Higher School of Economics (Moscow, Russia)
  • 2011–2022 — Senior Lecturer, Department of Sociology, Higher School of Economics (Moscow, Russia)

Publications and Presentations

  • Korbut, A. (2023) How conversational are “conversational agents”? Evidence from the study of users interaction with a service telephone chatbot. Social Interaction: Video-Based Studies of Human Sociality. In press.
  • Korbut, A. (2022, 29 September — 1 October) AI as a tool of propaganda: Ethical and political considerations in the case of FEDOR the Robot [Conference presentation]. Quo vadis Digital Democracy? Strengthening and Preserving Democracy in the Digital Age: An International Hybrid Conference of the Research Association NRW Digital Society, Bonn, Germany.
  • Korbut, A. (2021) Domestication of artificial intelligence: Smart speakers and transformation of everyday life. Monitoring of Public Opinion: Economic and Social Changes, 1, 193–216. (In Russian)
  • Korbut, A. (2019) User’s reaction to breakdowns in human-computer interaction: Sociological analysis. Journal of Sociology and Social Anthropology, 22(6), 27–43. (In Russian)
  • Korbut, A. (2018) “Sorry, I cannot understand”: Ways of dealing with non-understanding in human-robot interaction. Laboratorium, 10(3), 57–78. (In Russian)

Dr. Andrei Korbut

Fellow at CAIS from April to September 2023