The world is changing! Intelligent and autonomous machines are entering not only our workplace but also our homes. And as such, machines must be social. I believe that one of the challenges that the areas of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Robotics face nowadays is how to make machines “social”, that is, how to endow agents and robots with  social interaction capabilities enabling them to interact with humans and with other agents in a natural, flexible and transparent way.

My main research focuses on the problems and techniques for creating social agents that can simulate human-like behaviours, be transparent, natural and eventually, give the illusion of life. Over the years I’ve dealt with this problem by engineering agents that exhibit specific social capabilities, including aspects such as emotions, personality, culture, non-verbal behaviour, empathy, collaboration, and others.  My main contributions to the area of social agents have been in the field of virtual agents, multi-agent systems, affective computing and social robotics. Most of my publications on these topics can be found in the GAIPS web site, or through my google scholar.

Studying social interactions “for” and “with” machines is a challenge that I believe will allow us to engineer engaging, natural, and, most importantly, “humane” AI. That is my journey…