Love Your Robot? You're Not Alone.

The interaction between humans and robots has been a common theme in science fiction and popular culture, but robotic machines don't have to be humanoid or even have much personality for people to develop a relationship with them. Never mind Data in "Star Trek" or BB-8 in "Star Wars," a Georgia Tech study released back in 2010 found people had become emotionally attached to their Roomba robotic vacuum cleaners, giving them names and assigning them genders. A 2013 study at the University of Washington found members of the Army's Explosive Ordnance Disposal units had developed bonds with their bomb disposal robots and although those feelings hadn't affected their performance, raised the question of whether they could eventually compromise decision-making. When robots of one kind or another develop personalities, through machine learning, natural language processing and other artificial intelligence technologies, human operators can get to "know" them, even like them. But the bottom line for government organizations looking to make increasing use of human-machine teaming is whether humans can trust them.