#81 – Anca Dragan: Human-Robot Interaction and Reward Engineering

About this episode

<p>Anca Dragan is a professor at Berkeley, working on human-robot interaction &#8212; algorithms that look beyond the robot&#8217;s function in isolation, and generate robot behavior that accounts for interaction and coordination with human beings.</p> <p>Support this podcast by supporting the sponsors and using the special code:<br /> &#8211; Download Cash App on the <a href="https://apps.apple.com/us/app/cash-app/id711923939">App Store</a> or <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.squareup.cash&#38;hl=en_US">Google Play</a> &#38; use code &#8220;LexPodcast&#8221;&#160;</p> <p>EPISODE LINKS:<br /> Anca&#8217;s Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/ancadianadragan">https://twitter.com/ancadianadragan</a><br /> Anca&#8217;s Website: <a href="https://people.eecs.berkeley.edu/~anca/">https://people.eecs.berkeley.edu/~anca/</a></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">This conversation is part of the Artificial Intelligence podcast.</span>&#160;If you would like to get more information about this podcast go to <a href="https://lexfridman.com/ai">https://lexfridman.com/ai</a> or connect with @lexfridman on <a href="https://twitter.com/lexfridman">Twitter</a>, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/lexfridman/">LinkedIn</a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/lexfridman">Facebook</a>, <a href="https://medium.com/@lexfridman">Medium</a>, or <a href="https://www.youtube.com/lexfridman">YouTube</a> where you can watch the video versions of these conversations. If you enjoy the podcast, please rate it 5 stars on <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/artificial-intelligence/id1434243584">Apple Podcasts</a>, follow on <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/2MAi0BvDc6GTFvKFPXnkCL">Spotify</a>, or support it on <a href="https://www.patreon.com/lexfridman">Patreon</a>.</p> <p>Here&#8217;s the outline of the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.</p> <p>OUTLINE:<br /> 00:00 &#8211; Introduction<br /> 02:26 &#8211; Interest in robotics<br /> 05:32 &#8211; Computer science<br /> 07:32 &#8211; Favorite robot<br /> 13:25 &#8211; How difficult is human-robot interaction?<br /> 32:01 &#8211; HRI application domains<br /> 34:24 &#8211; Optimizing the beliefs of humans<br /> 45:59 &#8211; Difficulty of driving when humans are involved<br /> 1:05:02 &#8211; Semi-autonomous driving<br /> 1:10:39 &#8211; How do we specify good rewards?<br /> 1:17:30 &#8211; Leaked information from human behavior<br /> 1:21:59 &#8211; Three laws of robotics<br /> 1:26:31 &#8211; Book recommendation<br /> 1:29:02 &#8211; If a doctor gave you 5 years to live&#8230;<br /> 1:32:48 &#8211; Small act of kindness<br /> 1:34:31 &#8211; Meaning of life</p>