Teaching Robots to Act and Converse in Physical Spaces: Participatory Design Fictions with Museum Guides

This paper reflects on the expectations of museum guides regarding companion AI-powered robots in a science museum space. We employed Design Fiction as a technique to explore machine teaching of future technologies in public spaces. The fiction is illustrated by an open-ended “imaginary abstract” which showcases the dilemma of buying AI robots to work as floor guides in a science museum. Forty-seven museum guides participated in a study in which they were asked to write the end of a fictional story. Participants described their impressions and implications of teaching robots who would do their jobs. This design fiction activity is expected to help grounding the debate on machine teaching paradigms, values, and social dilemmas which new technologies bring to physical spaces.