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I'm your host, Elise Hu.
What do you think would happen if a historian decided to live with a humanoid robot?
Well, historian and AI researcher Emily Kate Genitowski did just that.
So I wrote to the transit authority and I said I really want to buy an annual card for my AI humanoid robot.
In her talk, she explores the future of human-like robots driven by AI, not through sci-fi or apocalyptic predictions, but through the realities of everyday life.
I walk my dog in the square every morning and I bring my robot.
And after spending a year with her robot named Tova, she uncovers small but crucial questions and realizations she believes will shape the trajectory of our future and our history with AI.
What happens when thousands or millions of these robots are shipped all over the world to different people, different communities that have different perspectives on this right?
Emily believes we still have time to get it right.
That's coming up right after a short break.
And now our TED Talk of the day.
At this moment, it is exactly 10.03 GMT.
But it's 12.03 here in Vienna.
Why?
Britain adopted GMT in 1847 and formally legislated it in 1880.
This decision wasn't born from some overarching philosophical discussion about the concept of time and location.
It was just practicality.
We needed to know when trains would be arriving and departing at any station along an expansive railroad route.
This need rendered local solar times too imprecise and necessitated our modern-day concept of time zones.
I'm a historian, and I am fascinated by the factors that shape progress surrounding technology.
From steam power to the telephone to the internet, we can track the intertwined development of society and technology as each new innovative leap is made.
The technological progress of our generation is AI.
Analyzing how AI will both fit into and shape our world is a fascinating topic that, more often than not, is sensationalized with these huge promises or catastrophized with disaster.
But in a world that is just screaming for you to think big in order to discuss the future, as a historian, I ask you to think small.
The history of technological progress and its accompanying regulatory frameworks teach us that our future, with AI and robotics, won't only be decided by these large, sweeping philosophical discussions, but through practicality, through the answering of thousands of practical questions that arise from the simple minutia of sharing everyday life.
I have embarked upon a research project to uncover what all of these thousands of questions really are.
I have spent the greater part of this past year living alongside an AI humanoid robot.
I hatched this immersive research project because I already had all of these questions building up on my own right.
I have a little dog.
How would my dog act around the humanoid robot?
How would the robot handle a house full of delicate antiques?
With factories all over the world working hard to get domestic AI robotics to market and these engaging viral videos igniting curiosity in millions of people around the world, I felt that, as a historian living thoughtfully and openly with a humanoid robot, I could help to provide a glimpse into what the future could look like, start some interesting conversations, find gaps in regulation and experiment with community standards for the world around me.
This is a Unitree G1EDU1.
It's equipped with 3D LiDAR scanning and a depth camera and a microphone array.
It has a large language model which name is BenBen, and it has AI-powered stability and movement capabilities.
To me and my friends, though, this is Tova, the robot that I live with at home.
Every day with Tova on Earth, this really wide range of practical issues.
And in turn, that highlights the need for regulation in a really wide variety of spaces.
Today, I'm going to share with you five practical lessons that I've learned as a historian living with a robot, and how the lessons learned at my house connect to society's future.
Lesson one, you have to robot proof your home.
It's I mentioned Tova has LIDAR scanning.
And with that, there's something that's called obstacle avoidance.
It sounds wonderful, right?
Unfortunately, it doesn't always shield us from some clumsiness around the house.
See, Tova walks and runs, and Tova gestures.
And with those gestures, unfortunately for my household, I've lost my favorite teacup, some vases and pretty much every wine glass that I own.
So I called my insurance company and I wanted to ask them about expanding my home insurance coverage and my personal liability insurance.
And I got an agent on the phone.
Hello, you've reached an agent.
Hi, it's Emily, I need to actually expand my home insurance coverage and my personal liability.
Okay, what changed?
I had an AI humanoid robot move in.
Hello?
They hung up on me because they thought it was a prank.
I don't blame them.
I don't blame them.
I was the first one to call about it.
But autonomous robotics liability and insurance coverage is a field where practicality and immersion, they're going to create precedence on any number of different issues, right?
We need to answer questions like, I own the robot.
The company programmed the robot.
And my friend is operating the robot, and the robot knocks over a boss.
Who's responsible?
Now I know that these questions are a little bit far from these amazing sci-fi debates about a robotic future that we love to have, but these are the types of questions that demand answers the moment one of these robots comes into your home.
Lesson two, transit with a robot is really rough.
So I had the immense pleasure of introducing Tova to Vienna on an Austrian morning show on national television.
And this is filmed on a sound stage.
It's like way out in the outskirts of the city.
And they film in the wee hours of the morning.
So something to keep in mind about Tova.
Tova weighs like 60 kilos and packs into this like giant black crate.
And I had to call a cab at 4 a.m. and ask the driver, oh, I have something.
Can you just help me get something into the back of the van?
And he starts to come around the back of the van.
He's already looking at me because obviously it's four in the morning.
The destination is not common.
And then he sees this giant black box that's basically the size of me.
And reluctantly, he leans down to grab it.
And as soon as he feels how heavy it is, he looks at me.
Is there a body in here?
I paused because, like, kind of, kind of funny.
He freaked out.
He freaked out.
I had to open it up and show him it's a humanoid robot to ease his mind.
But this brings up the concept of transport regulations for humanoid robotics, right?
So calling cabs for giant black boxes, it gets expensive.
So I was racking my brain thinking to myself, okay, I take the tram.
The robot has legs.
The robot can just walk on the tram and sit down, right?
Then I thought, okay, what if the ticket inspector comes, right?
Needs a ticket if it's gonna be taking up a seat.
So I wrote to the transit authority and I said I really wanna buy an annual card for my AI humanoid robot.
This didn't go over too well.
So they wrote back to me and they said any and all requests for an annual card.
It has to be accompanied by registration papers of the resident.
I don't have that, right?
So naturally, I went to the police bureau and I said, I need to register someone at my home.
They said, who?
I said, my AI humanoid robot.
And they kicked me out the door.
I don't blame them at all, obviously, but...
I do think that if these robots are going to be helping us manage our lives and our homes, this innately comes with them, occasionally venturing outside right.
They could go somewhere with us and just accompany us.
They could hold something for us, or they could run to the store when we're in the middle of cooking a recipe and we forget an ingredient.
We need to facilitate and regulate a way for them to do that safely that works for the robots and the owners and the other people living in the city who don't have robots, and the city itself.
Lesson three is that robots aren't always welcome.
So, of course, as you can imagine, I have friends who call me up and they beg me.
I'm having a party this weekend.
Bring the robot.
It's so cool.
Bring the robot.
I want the robot at my party.
On the other hand, I have colleagues who will send me a message in the morning.
If you don't want to bring the robot today, that's fine.
They don't want it there.
I respect that there are certain rules that have begun to develop and emerge surrounding where the robot is welcome and where it's not.
I have a domestic robot, so it's not really wanted or needed in the faculty rooms at the university where I work.
My friends who have toddlers just learning to walk, we don't want it around them in their house.
And it hasn't been permitted to visit houses of worship.
These restrictions and requests.
They're completely informal, but they're completely respected by me.
What happens when thousands or millions of these robots are shipped all over the world to different people, different communities that have different perspectives on this right?
So we really need to formulate community standards.
And the community standards can talk about where the robots are welcome, where they're not, what they can do, what they can't do.
This can take any number of very interesting forms, right?
So we could have like robot zones and no-go zones.
And it could kind of be like where we let e-scooters and e-bikes go and throttle them when they're in the wrong area, right.
Or this could be like when you go to the supermarket and they say no pets are allowed, and the icon in the window and be decided upon like a policy each building or business.
Or this could look like government issue ID cards for robots with their individually given permissions.
This is like where they can go, what they can do, approved and managed by a centralized regulation office with like trainings and licensing and things like this.
It's completely up to us to decide.
Lesson four is that you can send your robot to work.
So Tova was at home, and I went out with a friend who had just opened up a local cafe.
And jokingly, he was like, oh, let's bring Tova to help out around the store.
This is such a good idea.
We had a laugh about it, but it was like playing over in my mind, in my mind.
And then...
We brought it over and learned how to help out at a store.
Now this discussion of labor displacement by AI and robotics.
It's one of those discussions that just attracts those large catastrophic statements.
I'm sure you've all heard them.
Robots are taking our jobs.
No one's going to have a job in the future.
These are obviously such interesting, fascinating, and terrifying conversations.
The conversations that I would love us to be also having alongside that are of a more practical nature, right.
What does a fair tax system look like?
To facilitate the advantages for business owners of bringing in robotic workers, of automating using AI to increase efficiency, while still contributing to the public funds that support our communities right.
Are we taxing just the sale of the robot or are we taxing the value that it adds?
Are we going to put those funds into our current social systems or are we going to scrap it and try to develop universal basic income system instead?
These broad fear-mongering statements.
They have to give way to practical discussions about how to preserve our financial systems while still allowing us to embrace the efficiencies offered by AI.
Lesson five is that robots really bring out the best in us and the worst in us.
So I mentioned I have a dog.
I walk my dog in the square every morning, and I bring my robot.
And the reactions that I get, they run the gamut.
So one day I had a mom and she was standing pretty much as far back as a human could stand from the robot, but encouraging her kids go talk, talk.
And they were asking such good questions.
What should I study at school if I want to work with a robot?
Can you make the robot wave at me?
Can I race the robot? in the square, very sweet.
In addition, the following day I had an older gentleman walk up and try to break Tova's arm right off of its body.
When I said to him, what are you doing?
He said, oh, um...
A good old-fashioned firm handshake, for sure.
Yeah, okay.
It looked like that.
So the bottom line is that people, they have these very, very wide reactions, right?
And this can be due to any number of factors.
We have age, gender, culture, and interestingly enough, media preconceptions.
This is like everything from what they were scrolling on that morning and seeing a brand new video to
Their first introduction to robotics, right?
If that was Mr. Data on Star Trek or C-3PO in Star Wars or Rosie on the Jetsons.
Everybody comes with this like really, really sort of a whole history behind them.
And when they finally get in front of a robot, it can be so disappointing. so disappointing.
I think we need to have a lot more interaction between the public and robotics so that we can actually show people where we're at and give a more accurate understanding, so that we can regulate and have discussions for reality in a more practical format.
The invisible hand of practicality will continue to shape the trajectory of history as we move into the future.
So, instead of being wrapped up in the sensationalism of fear or excitement, I ask that we bring these discussions down into reality, that we embrace the practical nature of life alongside embodied AI, as we prepare to regulate the future together.
So next time that somebody tries to talk to you about the robot apocalypse, I want you to turn to them and say okay okay, okay.
But do you think that robots need a ticket on the tram?
That was Emily Kate Genitowski speaking at TED AI in Vienna, Austria in 2025.
If you're curious about TED's curation, find out more at TED.com slash curation guidelines.
And that's it for today.
TED Talks Daily is part of the TED Audio Collective.
This talk was fact-checked by the TED Research Team and produced and edited by our team Martha Estefanos, Oliver Friedman, Brian Green, Lucy Little and Tansika Sangmarnivong.
This episode was mixed by Christopher Fasey-Bogan.
Additional support from Emma Taubner and Daniela Balarezo.
I'm Elise Hugh.
I'll be back tomorrow with a fresh idea for your feed.
Thanks for listening.
