The Touchy Task of Making Robots Seem Human--But Not Too Human

If you're in the market, you'll have plenty to choose from. Some look like descendants of Honda's Asimo--shiny white bots with heads, eyes, arms, and legs. Ubtech's Lynx has elbows, knees, and hands, which it can use to teach you yoga poses, of all things, while Hanson Robotics' Sophia bot approaches Ex Machina-levels of believability. Others, like Amazon's Alexa and Google Home, have no form. They come baked into simple speakers and desktop appliances. It seems most robot helpers take one of these two shapes: humanoid or monolithic.