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The artist turning heads and changing minds with her $200K robot dog

Part 1 of the TED Radio Hour episode "How taking a second look can change your everything"

In communist Poland, the radio gave Agnieszka Pilat's family hope. Now, as an artist and techno-optimist, she hopes her portraits of robots and machines will change minds about the future of tech.

About Agnieszka Pilat

Agnieszka Pilat is a Polish-born artist whose work focuses on the intersection of technology and art. She is known for her unique series of technology portraits. She taught Basia, her Boston Dynamics robot dog, to paint.

Since she sees robots as the modern upper echelons, she describes herself saying, "I am a propaganda artist and I work for the machine." She is a guest artist at Agility Robotics and SpaceX.

This segment of the TED Radio Hour was produced by Katie Monteleone and edited by Sanaz Meshkinpour. You can follow us on Facebook @TEDRadioHourand email us at TEDRadioHour@npr.org.

Web Resources

Related TED Bio: Agnieszka Pilat
Related TED Talk: Meet NEO, Your Robot Butler in Training
Related TED Playlist: How to live with robots

Related NPR Links

Short Wave: A robot dog is training on Earth to be able to go to space one day
The Indicator: It's actually really hard to make a robot, guys
Short Wave: Preserving humanity in the age of robots

Copyright 2025 NPR

Manoush Zomorodi
Manoush Zomorodi is the host of TED Radio Hour. She is a journalist, podcaster and media entrepreneur, and her work reflects her passion for investigating how technology and business are transforming humanity.
Katie Monteleone
Katie Monteleone is a producer for TED Radio Hour. She started out as an intern for the show in January 2019. After her internship, Monteleone began producing for Life Kit before returning to the TED Radio Hour team in October 2019 as a full-time producer.
Sanaz Meshkinpour
[Copyright 2024 NPR]