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SOCIABLE ROBOTS 127

Thanks to the work begun by Cynthia Breazeal, researchers can
add a new component: the ability to recognize and respond to
human emotional language.
Recent writers have suggested that “emotional intelligence”—the
ability to assess accurately and respond to one’s own emotions and
those of others—may be as important as IQ. If advanced emotional
intelligence combines with more traditional capabilities, a sociable
robot may be able to help people in ways that are barely conceivable
today, including the following:

SOCIAL IMPACT: WOMEN IN ROBOTICS

Robotics has traditionally been considered a form of engineering, a
field with relatively low participation by women. When asked why
there are so few women in robotics, Breazeal told Adam Cohen of Time
that women do not get enough support: “Girls aren’t discouraged,
but they aren’t encouraged either.” Breazeal also pointed to the lack
of women engineers to serve as potential role models for girls. (She
noted, however, that in her case her mathematician mother did serve
as such a model.) In recent years, Breazeal has begun to intrigue and
inspire young women who might be considering careers in robotics.
A more subtle and perhaps more significant impact of Breazeal’s
work on women in science is how it offers a different vision of what
engineers and physical scientists do. Most people see little relation-
ship between engineering and such fields as child psychology or
sociology. Even robotics and artificial intelligence, while bringing
biology, neurology, and cognitive science into the mix, have not
really addressed how robots might relate to peoples’ social needs
and expectations. By designing robots that engage in social interac-
tion and that learn from their encounters with people, Breazeal is giv-
ing technology a new face. This in turn may build a bridge between
robotics and such fields as psychology and social science, which
have generally appealed more to women. Finally, technologists of
both genders may be challenged to think about technology not only
in terms of how it might be used but also by how both people and
increasingly sophisticated machines may be changing each other.