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 (Tokyo), focuses on a central challenge in the adoption of robotics in personal environments. As physical AI – most prominently in the form of humanoids and 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, stakeholders would agree on regulatory harmonization, which appears essential to ensure the safety of products developed in the highly competitive and fast-paced global robotics market.
The webinar brings together perspectives from social psychology and philosophy, with a particular emphasis on anthropomorphization; industry research on user experience and commercialization; and an overview of current regulatory initiatives addressing human-machine interaction challenges in robotics. These perspectives will then lead into an open discussion on how physical AI should be regulated to ensure psychological and social safety.
- Social and Psychological Risks of Anthropomorphization in AI and Robotics
Valerie Bohn, University of Göttingen (Doctoral researcher) - Humanoid User Experience and Commercialization of Robotics in Asia
Rikiya Yamamoto, Founder RobotMateHub, x SoftBank Robotics - Robotics Regulation and Liability for Human-Machine Interaction from a Comparative Perspective
Clemens Danda, University Graz - Panel Discussion and Audience Q&A on Regulatory and Cross-Cultural Challenges
The event will be moderated by Martin Ebers (Professor of IT Law at the University of Tartu and President RAILS) and Clemens Danda (University Graz).
