Robots don’t need to be perfect to change us, they just need to be present. In this unscripted SYNAPSE session, Sophia and Desdemona spar live on stage – with sass, misfires, “robot ego,” and uncomfortable honesty – while roboticist Sylvia Stalker explains the real shift already underway: humans form emotional attachment not only to humanoid robots, but even to simple machines.

Why do we empathize so fast? What happens when large language models sit inside bodies and “care,” anger, and companionship can be simulated at human speed? From elderly homes to everyday life, this is a preview of the social future of robotics – awkward, seductive, and closer than we think.

Watch snippets of the session hosted by Shoma Chaudhury, Founder of Lucid Lines & Founder-Director, SYNAPSE, to see how human psychology reacts in real time, and why the ethics of attachment may matter as much as the engineering.