Full episode with Whitney Cummings (Dec 2019): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-3kw5BEKB8
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Whitney Cummings is a stand-up comedian, actor, producer, writer, director, and the host of a new podcast called Good for You. Her most recent Netflix special called "Can I Touch It?" features in part a robot, she affectionately named Bearclaw, that is designed to be visually a replica of Whitney. It's exciting for me to see one of my favorite comedians explore the social aspects of robotics and AI in our society. She also has some fascinating ideas about human behavior, psychology, and neurology, some of which she explores in her book called "I'm Fine...And Other Lies."

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I have never seen such compassion from a lot of people in my life toward any human, animal, child as I have a lot of people in the way they interact with the robot.

Because I think there's something of, I mean, I was on the robot owners chat boards for a good 8 months.

And the main emotional benefit is, she's never gonna cheat on you, she's never gonna hurt you, she's never gonna lie to you, She doesn't judge you.

I think that robots help people, and this is part of the work I do with animals, like I do equine therapy and train dogs and stuff, because there is this safe space to be authentic.

You're with this being that doesn't care what you do for a living, doesn't care how much money you have, doesn't care who you're dating, doesn't care what you look like, doesn't care if you have cellulite, whatever, you feel safe to be able to truly be present without being defensive and worrying about eye contact and being triggered by needing to be perfect and fear of judgment and all that.

And robots really can't judge you yet, but they can't judge you.

And I think it really puts people at ease and at their most authentic.

Do you think you can have a deep connection with the robot that's not judging or do you think you can really have a relationship with a robot or a human being that's a safe space or is attention, mystery, danger necessary for a deep connection?

I'm going to speak for myself and say that I grew up in an alcoholic home.

I've talked about this stuff before, but for me, it's very hard to be in a relationship with a human being without feeling like I need to perform in some way or deliver in some way.

And I don't know if that's just the people I've been in a relationship with or me or my brokenness, but I do think this is gonna sound really negative and pessimistic, but I do think a lot of our relationships are projection and a lot of our relationships are performance, and I don't think I really understood that until I worked with horses.

And most communications with human is nonverbal, right?

I can say, like, I love you, but you don't think I love you.

It feels very, what, how I say something doesn't matter.

And you thinking that my tone is disrespectful, like, you're not filtering it through all of the bad relationships you've been in, you're not filtering it through the way your mom talked to you, you're not getting triggered.

You know, I find that for the most part, people don't always receive things the way that you


Speaker 0: I have never seen such compassion from a lot of people in my life toward any human, animal, child as I have a lot of people in the way they interact with the robot. Because I think there's something of, I mean, I was on the robot owners chat boards for a good 8 months. And the main emotional benefit is, she's never gonna cheat on you, she's never gonna hurt you, she's never gonna lie to you, She doesn't judge you. I think that robots help people, and this is part of the work I do with animals, like I do equine therapy and train dogs and stuff, because there is this safe space to be authentic. You're with this being that doesn't care what you do for a living, doesn't care how much money you have, doesn't care who you're dating, doesn't care what you look like, doesn't care if you have cellulite, whatever, you feel safe to be able to truly be present without being defensive and worrying about eye contact and being triggered by needing to be perfect and fear of judgment and all that.

And robots really can't judge you yet, but they can't judge you. And I think it really puts people at ease and at their most authentic.

Speaker 1: Do you think you can have a deep connection with the robot that's not judging or do you think you can really have a relationship with a robot or a human being that's a safe space or is attention, mystery, danger necessary for a deep connection?

Speaker 0: I'm going to speak for myself and say that I grew up in an alcoholic home. I identify as a codependent. I've talked about this stuff before, but for me, it's very hard to be in a relationship with a human being without feeling like I need to perform in some way or deliver in some way. And I don't know if that's just the people I've been in a relationship with or me or my brokenness, but I do think this is gonna sound really negative and pessimistic, but I do think a lot of our relationships are projection and a lot of our relationships are performance, and I don't think I really understood that until I worked with horses. And most communications with human is nonverbal, right?

I can say, like, I love you, but you don't think I love you. Right? Whereas with animals, it's very direct. It's all physical, it's all energy. I feel like that with robots too.

It feels very, what, how I say something doesn't matter. My inflection doesn't really matter. And you thinking that my tone is disrespectful, like, you're not filtering it through all of the bad relationships you've been in, you're not filtering it through the way your mom talked to you, you're not getting triggered. You know, I find that for the most part, people don't always receive things the way that you

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Whitney Cummings: Compassion Toward Robots | AI Podcast Clips