Julie Carpenter


Julie Carpenter, born Julie Gwyn Wajdyk, is an American researcher whose work focuses on human behavior with emerging technologies, especially within vulnerable and marginalized populations. She is best known for her work in human attachment to robots and other forms of artificial intelligence.

Education

Carpenter has a Ph.D. in educational psychology from the University of Washington, an M.S. in Technical Communication/Human-Computer Interaction from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, a second M.S. from the Technical Communication program at the University of Washington, and a B.A. in Communication Arts from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Work

Her 2016 book Culture and Human-Robot Interaction in Militarized Spaces: A War Story explores the social role of robots in the military, specifically experiences reported by Explosive Ordinance Disposal personnel and their social interactions with robots they use in their work. More recently, she has written about human sexuality and robotic systems in Sex Robots: Social and ethical implications. In her chapter "Deux sex machina: Loving robot sex workers and the allure of an insincere kiss", Carpenter proposes incorporating a temporal component to Mori's Uncanny Valley hypothesis to account for individual changes in feelings of familiarity after repeated exposure to humanoid robots, as well as larger cultural shifts of acceptance toward humanoid robots over time.
Carpenter has said in interviews that she has been influenced by the robot designs of David Hanson and the science fiction writing of Zenna Henderson and Phillip K. Dick.
Recent work also includes acting as a volunteer research consultant to collaborate with VICE and VIRTUE Nordic on Q, the world's first nonbinary human voice for use with technology. In 2019, Q won the Glass Lion for Change and three bronze Lions in audio categories at Cannes. She also gave a 2016 TEDx talk in Odense, Denmark, Humans + Robots: Dream Machines.

Publications

Books