Towards A Framework for Levels of Anthropomorphic Deception in Robots and AI
For HCI and HRI researchers and practitioners, this framework offers a structured way to reflect on the ethical implications of anthropomorphic design, though it is preliminary and lacks empirical validation.
This paper proposes a framework with four levels of anthropomorphic deception in robots and AI, defined by humanlikeness, agency, and selfhood, to guide designers in balancing functional necessity, social appropriateness, and ethical permissibility. No concrete numbers are provided.
This paper presents a preliminary draft of a framework around the use of anthropomorphic deception, defined here as misleading users towards humanlike affordances in the design of autonomous systems. The goal is to promote reflection among HCI and HRI researchers, as well as industry practitioners, to think about levels of anthropomorphic design that are: a) functionally necessary, b) socially appropriate, and c) ethically permissible for their use case. By reviewing the relevant literature on deception in HCI and HRI, we propose a framework with four levels of anthropomorphic deception. These levels are defined and distinguished by three factors: humanlikeness, agency, and selfhood. Example use cases at each level illustrate considerations around their functional, social, and ethical permissibility. We then present how this framework is applicable to previous work on persuasive robots We hope to promote a balanced view on anthropomorphic deception by design that should be neither naïve (e.g., as a default) nor exploitive (e.g., for economic benefit).