RAILS Webinar: Regulating Psychological and Social Risks in Human–Robot Interaction
📅 Date: 8 December 2026
🕒 Time: 13:30–15:00 CET
💻 Format: Webinar, followed by a panel discussion and audience Q&A
Our December RAILS Webinar, organized in collaboration with the Department of Public Law and Political Science at the University of Graz and the robotics platform RobotMateHub from Tokyo, focuses on a central challenge in the adoption of robotics in personal environments. As physical AI – most prominently in the form of humanoids or smaller companion robots – enters private spaces and offers increasingly deep social interactions with users, efforts are underway globally to identify and mitigate associated psychological and social risks. Ideally, legislators and stakeholders would reach a certain level of safety harmonization, which is essential to ensure the safety of products developed in a highly competitive and fast-paced global robotics market.
The webinar brings together perspectives from philosophy, social psychology, industry research on user experience and commercialization, and current regulatory initiatives around the globe addressing human-machine interaction challenges. These perspectives will then lead into an open panel discussion with audience participation on how physical AI should be regulated to ensure psychological and social safety.
· Chair:
Clemens Danda (University of Graz, RAILS)
Speakers:
· Philosophical Concepts of Anthropomorphization in Robotics, Valerie Bohn, (University of Göttingen, doctoral researcher)
· Social-Psychological Influences & Impacts in Robotics, Rose Guingrich, (Princeton Center for Information Technology Policy)
· Humanoid User Experience and Commercialization of Robotics in Asia, Rikiya Yamamoto (Founder RobotMateHub, xSoftBank Robotics)
· Comparative Regulation and Product Liability of Human-Robot Interaction, Clemens Danda (University of Graz, RAILS)
· Panel Discussion and Audience Q&A on Regulatory and Cross-Cultural Challenges
