Undercover Robot: My First Year as a Human
Watch out, Brussells Academy – this robot will outwit you all!
If super-high-tech android Dotty can spend an entire year masquerading as a twelve-year-old schoolgirl, she could win a multi-million-pound prize that will enable her creators to continue their ground-breaking work in the development of AI. Easy-peasy, right? As Dotty navigates the social expectations of Year 7 she gets into a series of hilarious scrapes, and encounters numerous ethical dilemmas both at school and at home. Then a boy in her class discovers there's a reward for outing the robot, and becomes intent on proving that Dotty is not who – or what – she says she is. To prevent herself from being discovered, Dotty needs to put into practice everything she has learned about being human. But will it be enough...?
Bertie Fraser is the founder of children's story podcast Storynory, which has a worldwide following. He studied Classics at Oxford University and is still fascinated by the ancient world. He has worked in Russia as a freelance journalist, and as a producer for the BBC World Service. He lives in London.
David Edmonds is a multi-award-winning BBC journalist and a Distinguished Research Fellow at the Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics at Oxford University. He has written/edited a dozen books, including – with John Eidinow – the international bestseller Wittgenstein’s Poker (shortlisted for The Guardian First Book Prize). He hosts several podcasts one of which, Philosophy Bites, has had nearly 40 million downloads. He lives in London with his wife and two children.