Personal and social identity
Personal identity provides a clear sense of "Who am I in my mind?"—a narrative rooted in one's life story, maintaining continuity from the past into the present. Social identity considers "Who am I in their mind?" as identity ascribed to us by others and mediated by culture and societal expectations. There is a need to recognise the complex, nuanced nature of human identity and design robots that can exist in harmony with humans in the shared world. How do we design robots that can adapt to individuals' and groups' evolving identities? How can robots cater to the changing needs and preferences of people? How can and should robots analyze and synthesize evolving human identity while effectively adapting over time? Such adaptive robots open new possibilities in education, healthcare, and beyond by offering personalized learning experiences, assisting in caregiving for diverse patient needs, and promoting inclusivity by bridging the gap between extant technology and the realities of human culture and identity.
Designed identity
A robot's identity influences our engagement with it, raising questions like "Who is this robot?" in our mind. Artificial identity can be shaped through familar traits like gesture, gaze, voice, expressions, and touch- aspects embedded in robot embodiment. However, artificial identity can fluidly traverse physical, digital, and meta forms e.g., Siri. This could be through the design of either a unified or an adaptable identity across different embodiments. Thus, the questions that arise are- How can we align the artificial identity features of a robot to its embodiment? How should an agent behave when it transfers to another form? How can we design for coherent multi-modal identity features across different mediums? Could designing fluid robot identities, e.g., through role-taking, help in addressing the fragmented experiences people encounter, like with dementia?
In the Shared World
The perception of the robot as a single coherent robot identity or "persona" depends on who is perceiving it. This becomes complicated considering not just the fluidity across multiple embodiments but also the contextual nature of human-roboot interaction. The robot identity presented in a particular embodiment can change in itself, potentially changing to a completely distinct artificial identity from one previously presented (e.g. the Furhat robot). With this fluidity, robot identity can be made to adapt to different human interactions and environments, potentially improving how robots interact in the shared world. This opens up questions of how should robot identity be presented, when would it be appropriate to adapt and present a particular robot identity, and how could robot identity account for human identity.