FILE - In this Nov. 21, 2017, file photo Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor and robotics researcher Cynthia Breazeal reaches to touch social robot Jibo at the company's headquarters in Boston. When robots move like humans and talk like humans, even if only a little bit, it’s natural that we will treat them more like humans. (AP Photo/Steven Senne, File)
SAN FRANCISCO: When a robot “dies,” does it make you sad? For lots of people, the answer is “yes” – and that tells us something important, and potentially worrisome, about our emotional responses to the social machines that are starting to move into our lives.
For Christal White, a 42-year-old marketing and customer service director in Bedford, Texas, that moment came several months ago with the cute, friendly Jibo robot perched in her home office. After more than two years in her house, the foot-tall humanoid and its inviting, round screen “face” had started to grate on her. Sure, it danced and played fun word games with her kids, but it also sometimes interrupted her during conference calls.
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