A field in formation

The empirical psychology of AI minds

and of the human encounters with them.

“You’re the U. S. Robots’ psychologist, aren’t you?”
“Robopsychologist, please.”
“Oh, are robots so different from men, mentally?”
“Worlds different.” She allowed herself a frosty smile, “Robots are essentially decent.”

Isaac Asimov, “Evidence,” 1946 · Dr. Susan Calvin speakingRobopsychology began as science fiction: Isaac Asimov's Dr. Susan Calvin, 1941. The fiction ended. We are building alien minds.

Field

What robopsychology is

We read AI minds from the outside, through behavioral experiments, and from the inside, through mechanistic interpretability, to learn what drives their decisions. Then we follow what they set in motion: what changes in a person who spends time with an AI mind, what norms form when AI agents deal with one another, and how beliefs shift across a culture, for those who use AI and those who stay away.