Julie Carpenter(IX)
Julie Carpenter is an American researcher whose work focuses on human behavior with emerging technologies. She is best known for her research on human attachment to robots and other forms of artificial intelligence.
Carpenter acted as a research consultant in collaboration with VICE and Virtue-Nordic on Q, the world's first gender-ambiguous human voice for use with technology. In 2019, Q won the Glass Lion for Change and three bronze Lions in audio categories at the International Festival of Creativity in Cannes.
She has written about human sexuality and robots in the book "Sex Robots: Social and Ethical Implications." In her chapter "Deux Sex Machina: Loving Robot Sex Workers and the Allure of an Insincere Kiss," Carpenter proposed incorporating a temporal component to Mori's Uncanny Valley hypothesis to account for individual changes in individual feelings of familiarity after repeated exposure to humanoid robots, as well as larger cultural shifts of acceptance toward humanoid robots over time. In 2022, her chapter, "A Solitary Thing: Emotional Intimacy and the Idea of Cheating in a Committed Human-Human Relationship with a Robot," was published in the book "Gender in AI and Robotics: The Gender Challenges from an Interdisciplinary Perspective" (Switzerland: Springer).
Her 2025 book, "The Naked Android: Synthetic Socialness and the Human Gaze," illuminates the connections between the stories people tell, their expectations of what a robot is, and how these beliefs and values manifest in how real robots are designed and used. The introduction of the "human gaze" (and the "robot gaze") articulates how peoples' expectations and perceptions about robots are ultimately based on deeply personal cultural interpretations of what is artificial or human and what problems social robots should-or should not-solve. "The Naked Android" clarifies how human qualities like understanding and desire are designed into robots as mediums as well as projected onto them by the people who live with them.
Her 2016 book "Culture and Human-Robot Interaction in Militarized Spaces: A War Story" explored the social roles of robots in the military, specifically experiences reported by Explosive Ordinance Disposal personnel and their social interactions with robots they use in their work.
Carpenter has said in interviews that the science fiction writing of Zenna Henderson and Phillip K. Dick influenced her research interests. She has been a consulting scientist for The Science and Entertainment Exchange from 2016-present
Carpenter acted as a research consultant in collaboration with VICE and Virtue-Nordic on Q, the world's first gender-ambiguous human voice for use with technology. In 2019, Q won the Glass Lion for Change and three bronze Lions in audio categories at the International Festival of Creativity in Cannes.
She has written about human sexuality and robots in the book "Sex Robots: Social and Ethical Implications." In her chapter "Deux Sex Machina: Loving Robot Sex Workers and the Allure of an Insincere Kiss," Carpenter proposed incorporating a temporal component to Mori's Uncanny Valley hypothesis to account for individual changes in individual feelings of familiarity after repeated exposure to humanoid robots, as well as larger cultural shifts of acceptance toward humanoid robots over time. In 2022, her chapter, "A Solitary Thing: Emotional Intimacy and the Idea of Cheating in a Committed Human-Human Relationship with a Robot," was published in the book "Gender in AI and Robotics: The Gender Challenges from an Interdisciplinary Perspective" (Switzerland: Springer).
Her 2025 book, "The Naked Android: Synthetic Socialness and the Human Gaze," illuminates the connections between the stories people tell, their expectations of what a robot is, and how these beliefs and values manifest in how real robots are designed and used. The introduction of the "human gaze" (and the "robot gaze") articulates how peoples' expectations and perceptions about robots are ultimately based on deeply personal cultural interpretations of what is artificial or human and what problems social robots should-or should not-solve. "The Naked Android" clarifies how human qualities like understanding and desire are designed into robots as mediums as well as projected onto them by the people who live with them.
Her 2016 book "Culture and Human-Robot Interaction in Militarized Spaces: A War Story" explored the social roles of robots in the military, specifically experiences reported by Explosive Ordinance Disposal personnel and their social interactions with robots they use in their work.
Carpenter has said in interviews that the science fiction writing of Zenna Henderson and Phillip K. Dick influenced her research interests. She has been a consulting scientist for The Science and Entertainment Exchange from 2016-present
