Should robots ever look like us?

Humanoid robots are a familiar trope in popular culture, but is making machines look like us a little bit creepy and even potentially dangerous? Whether it is Isaac Asimov's robotics novels, 1980s movie character Johnny 5, Hollywood's Avengers: The Age of Ultron or Channel 4's sci-fi drama Humans, there has long been a fascination in popular culture with robots becoming sentient - beings that can experience feelings and human-like consciousness. But how realistic - and desirable - is the prospect of robots that become almost indistinguishable from humans? Dr Ben Goertzel, who developed the AI software for Sophia, a social humanoid robot made by Hong Kong-based Hanson Robotics, believes robots should look like humans to help "break down suspicions and reservations people might have" about interacting with them. "You will have humanoid robots because people like them," he tells the BBC.