Whitney Cummings: Comedy, Robotics, Neurology, and Love

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.”


This conversation is part of the Artificial Intelligence
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Here’s the outline of the episode. On some podcast players you
should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.


00:00 – Introduction
03:51 – Eye contact
04:42 – Robot gender
08:49 – Whitney’s robot (Bearclaw)
12:17 – Human reaction to robots
14:09 – Fear of robots
25:15 – Surveillance
29:35 – Animals
35:01 – Compassion from people who own robots
37:55 – Passion
44:57 – Neurology
56:38 – Social media
1:04:35 – Love
1:13:40 – Mortality