How do you teach a robot social cues?

Robots already perform many traditionally human tasks, from vacuuming to surgery—and they could soon help care for the sick and elderly. But until they can convincingly mimic emotions, their caretaker value will be severely limited. In an effort to create “friendlier” machines, researchers are developing robotic helpers that can better read and react to social signals.
In this episode of the Oxford Sparks Big Questions podcast we visited Shimon Whiteson, Associate Professor at the Department of Computer Science at The University of Oxford to ask: How do you teach a robot social cues?