Barcelona Metropolis

Randi Williams is a researcher and educator, specialising in robotics. She is also a humanist and a community leader. Her work focuses on integrating ethics into artificial intelligence (AI) education, particularly through initiatives like RAISE, which aims to engage younger audiences. In addition, she is the founder of the Boston Chapter of Black in Robotics. Williams holds a Degree in Computer Science, a Master’s in Media Arts and Sciences from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and a doctorate from MIT’s renowned Media Lab.

Randi Williams is not just young, but very young, female and black – a triple rebellion within the tech world. And let’s make it four, considering she’s human in a world of robots.

Randi Williams is akin to a rock star in the realms of AI, robotics and education, with a unique blend of technical prowess, ethical integrity, dedication to the community and a fervent desire to pass on her knowledge to the next generation. Her journey began with a childhood fascination for mathematics, where she saw each problem like a puzzle with a single correct solution. She was less interested in the arts and literature, where the ethos was quite the opposite: there were as many solutions as creators. From mathematics, she moved on to video games, which she was already programming at a remarkably young age. She didn’t need extensive expertise or sophisticated development platforms; instead, she programmed games using PowerPoint. This approach to problem-solving with the resources at hand still guides her path today.

Yes, indeed, mathematics is creative. “All too often, we think of mathematicians as dull individuals who operate like computers. On the contrary: a solution to a mathematical problem that has never been solved before is, by its very nature, creative”, she argues. Creativity isn’t a binary concept – one is either creative or not – nor is it the exclusive domain of a select few; rather, creativity is an integral aspect of the human condition, and far from being black and white, it exists along a nuanced spectrum.

“Technology continually prompts us to redefine ourselves as individuals: if today’s children are growing up with voice assistants at home, how does this alter their relationship with technology?”, Williams ponders. “How do we teach in the classroom when one of the assistants present is ChatGPT? And its outcomes, how can we be certain they’re not false, biased or manipulated?” We are aware of our uncertainty. The most urgent issue we must address as a species, the climate emergency, arises from a flawed technological response to energy matters.

And from the broadest scale to the most personal: in a world teeming with robots, how do we define our humanity? Randi Williams argues that we stumbled from the outset, back in 1956, by broadly categorising various mathematical processes as artificial intelligence. These processes now have the capacity to produce text, images and sound in ways that were once the exclusive domain of humans. Nevertheless, this ability doesn’t equate to intelligence; consider, for instance, how a colony of termites builds intricate structures with ventilation systems that mimic the work of an architect, yet we do not attribute any intelligence to them. “To grapple with these existential questions, we need as many minds as possible engaged, and that will only happen if educators foster curiosity, particularly among girls, where we’re falling behind in STEM”, she contends.

Humanism and technology are deeply intertwined, forming the basis of the work of many professionals like Randi Williams. Her laboratory teems with robots. Every morning when she arrives, she greets them; after all, they are her collaborators. This simple yet inevitable act raises the profound question of the humanisation of technology. Isn’t treating a robot like a person demeaning to humans? Yet, we do it constantly, and technology doesn’t necessarily have to be that advanced; we humanise even the simplest of objects. Surely, you all know people who cherish their cars – often men – and most wouldn’t feel comfortable decapitating a doll. With a PhD in human-robot interaction, Williams occupies a unique vantage point in studying these interactions, which will ultimately shape our identity.

Does technology help us to be human?

At the core of her work lies this humanistic approach to technology: either technology assists us in our humanity, or we’re erring somewhere. It’s in this vein that in the Venn diagram formed by the circles of technology and humanism, with their increasingly intersecting zones, Williams, driven by identity, adds the circle of community. “I’m from Baltimore, you know?”, she shares. “Baltimore, the one from The Wire series, is a city grappling with numerous issues”. On 19 April 2015, young black man Freddy Gray succumbed to injuries sustained in police custody, in an incident deemed a homicide. He was 25 years old, and his arrest had been unlawful. His death ignited street protests, prompting the governor to declare a state of emergency. Like many Baltimore residents, Randi Williams took action, employing her tech savvy: “I wanted to contribute, and tech was my forte: I organised a hackathon within the community”.

That’s when she realised the immense potential of community, understanding how, without technology, we are at the mercy of those who wield it, and how technology can empower individuals to become who they aspire to be. It will require substantial education and widespread empowerment to change the utilitarian outlook of major tech firms, who often engage in “ethics washing” just to polish their public image. Technology and ethics are inseparable. Ethics isn’t merely a superficial layer applied at the end of the process; it must permeate throughout.

This is a key part of how we interact with technology, even on a personal level. Let’s bring it down to the level of physical bots, robots. While time travel might be out of reach, navigating through space often offers similar experiences. Japan faces the same issues as Europe in dealing with an ageing population, compounded by its status as an island nation with no immigration. And if we factor in its Shinto foundation, where objects possess spirits, assistive robots seem to fit right in – as Randi Williams points out. Culture plays a major role in our relationship with technology: in the West, robots are often perceived as enemies, like the Terminator. Conversely, in Japan, they’re viewed more as helpful friends, like Doraemon, with his magical pocket capable of providing anything you need.

And here, she has much to say. Robots and technology, in general, must not merely meet the goals we set for them but do so intelligently and ethically, taking into consideration the environment – computer vision, sensors, proprioception – and, most importantly, the humans they interact with. In other words, it’s not sufficient for a robot to assist an elderly person in putting on their slippers as efficiently as possible; it must do so while considering the individual’s response to its actions: Is it the right time? Does the person feel uncomfortable if others are watching? This domain is what we refer to as social robotics. In Catalonia, the research is spearheaded by the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya researcher and writer, Carme Torras.