Comment apprivoiser son public avec un robot dit social ?

Abstract

This article explores and analyzes how a robot maker (Hanson Robotics, HR) uses mainstream social media as leverage to “tame” audiences. The object of the study is the so-called social robot SOPHIA, particularly her digital presences. The study is based on a qualitative analysis of data on the main social media accounts, in particular the facebook page, Twitter account, Pinterest, Linkedin, Instagram and YouTube channel from March 15, 2017 to April 20, 2020. Following the mapping of the communicational assemblage and ecosystem an analysis of the discourse produced, we propose the term “ventriloquist artificial sentience” to understand this communicational phenomenon, comparable to the “mechanical Turk” of fake Chess machines, blurring the lines between commercial communication and the mind game of human-robot interaction.