The AI pretenders

Tech and start-up companies providing'artificial intelligence' (or AI) products can be divided by the degree to which their devices either replicate or distinguish themselves from humans. Some interactive AI products deliberately adopt the persona of a children's book robot. Other tech companies are on a quest to make robots more lifelike and interactions with virtual bots more naturalistic or'seamless'. But should they really be doing this? Most modern robot ethics state that machines shouldn't mislead humans about their identity.