How can we build AI and robots that reflect diverse ways of thinking, relating, and creating—rather than replicating dominant systems of control and exclusion?
In this interactive session, AI researcher and artist Dr. Patrice Caire invites participants into a critical and playful exploration of feminist approaches to technology. Drawing on her interdisciplinary projects—such as Cooperatives Robots, which stages surreal encounters between humans, drones and humanoids—and her research on social robots in public spaces, Dr. Caire challenges the default assumptions built into AI and robotic design.
Using live examples and stories, Dr. Caire will unpack how social machines are shaped by cultural narratives, and how artistic experimentation can reveal and rewire the values embedded in technological systems.
To bring these ideas to life, the session includes participatory activities, such as:
• “Design a Robot Persona”: Small groups quickly sketch a robot character based on values like care, resistance, or ambiguity. How does this shift their expectations of what a robot can be or do?
• “Whose Voice Is That?”: A quick-fire guessing game based on robot voice samples—inviting reflection on bias, authority, and cultural assumptions embedded in vocal interfaces.
These playful moments are designed to surface critical questions, among which: Who gets to define intelligence? What is erased in the pursuit of "neutral" design? How can creative practices help us imagine technologies that center on complexity, difference, and accountability?
Bio (Short): Dr. Patrice Caire (PhD in Computer Sciences, AI) is an artist-scientist bridging technology and creative expression. As a researcher specializing in AI and social robotics, she has published over 50 scientific papers. Her multimedia installations have been exhibited at the Brooklyn Museum in New York, Luxembourg's Museum of Modern Art, and the Center for the Arts in San Francisco. This dual expertise allows her to approach AI development from both rigorous scientific and deeply human creative perspectives. Dr. Caire's work demonstrates that we can--and should--rethink AI and technology to create alternatives to harmful tech systems, making her a leading voice in the development of ethical and feminist AI. (More at https://patricecaire.com)
This session welcomes artists, scientists, technologists, educators, activists, and anyone curious about rethinking AI, tech and the machines we live with.
- Patrice Caire, artist and researcher (PhD in AI and robotics)
- Discord Thread
- Patrice Caire testing one of her robots during her CoRobots installation at the Luxembourg Modern Art Museum (2.1 MB)
- Patrice Caire repairing a robot of her Luxembourg United team at the RoboCup Soccer Competition in Japan (5.5 MB)
Patrice Caire (https://patricecaire.com) is a scientist and artist working at the intersection of Artificial Intelligence, ethics, and performance. With a background in computer science (PhD) and a research focus on social robotics and digital agency, she explores how technological systems reflect and reinforce cultural values. Her work often bridges academic research with participatory art, using speculative design, storytelling, and public engagement to question dominant narratives around AI. Patrice’s projects—such as CoRobots and studies on robot-human interaction in public spaces—invite audiences to rethink what machines are for, and whom they serve. She is particularly interested in feminist, decolonial, and relational approaches to design, and how they can transform how we imagine and build technology. Patrice is based in Barcelona and collaborates across Europe and the USA with researchers, artists, and activists dedicated to creating more inclusive, critical, and creative futures.