Papers
8
Total Citations
169
H-Index
5
About
Meeyoung Cha is a researcher whose work sits at the compelling intersection of artificial intelligence ethics, law, and public perception. She is best known for her sustained investigation into one of the most provocative questions in contemporary AI discourse: whether robots and AI systems should be granted legal personhood, rights, or moral standing. Through large-scale empirical studies involving thousands of participants, Cha has systematically mapped how ordinary people perceive AI accountability, punishment, and rights — research that directly engages with landmark policy debates, including the European Parliament's proposal to grant advanced robots "electronic personalities." Her most-cited works, including studies on the public perception of AI and robot rights (collectively approaching 100 citations) and her examination of the "punishment gap" — the disconnect between people's intuitive desire to punish AI and existing legal frameworks — have made meaningful contributions to both normative AI ethics and empirical social science. Beyond legal personhood, Cha has explored the moral standing of AI in creative domains and emotion detection in natural language. Her interdisciplinary approach bridges human-computer interaction, computational social science, and AI governance, making her an important voice in shaping how society understands and regulates increasingly autonomous systems.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
- 1Collecting the Public Perception of AI and Robot Rights52 citations · 2020
- 2Collecting the Public Perception of AI and Robot Rights46 citations · 2020
- 3
- 4The Conflict Between People’s Urge to Punish AI and Legal Systems23 citations · 2021
- 5Will Punishing Robots Become Imperative in the Future?11 citations · 2020
- 6Detecting Multiclass Emotions from Labeled Movie Scripts5 citations · 2018
- 7
- 8Explaining the Punishment Gap of AI and Robots.4 citations · 2020