The 'uncanny valley' and why robots like the Terminator are so terrifying

If watching the Terminator left you cowering behind the sofa, you are not alone. When it comes to cyborgs, robots, and AI powered digital helpers the creepiest ones are those which look most like us. A study about artificial intelligence has found'humanoid' robots like CP30 in Star Wars are really quite likeable. But if they look too much like people, robots tend to be disliked and mistrusted - perhaps because of a fear they could replace us in a dystopian future. This phenomenon is known as the'uncanny valley' - the unsettling feeling we get from robots and digital agents that are human-like but still somehow different.