Choosing Strategic Content: Do You Trust This Robot?
Sophia was standing on stage, having just delivered a speech, when the government of Saudi Arabia announced that it had granted her citizenship. She expressed delight and surprise at the honor, which was indeed unprecedented: She was the first robot in history to become a national citizen.
Sophia’s story was just one of many that appeared in Do You Trust This Robot?—a special issue of Illumination, the annual magazine of the Virginia Tech College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences. As the liberal arts school within a technology-rich university, the college community takes pride in faculty and student efforts to ensure that technologies serve humanity.
To showcase that strength and passion, I chose the interplay between technologies and the humanities as the focus of the issue’s special report. Features explore college members’ humanistic insights into the possible unintended consequences of such technological marvels as intelligent robotics, automated drones, driverless cars, and artificial intelligence.
