What personality makes a robot relatable to humans? Short Wave

Neurotic, anxious robots like C-3P0 from Star Wars’ C-3P0 and Marvin from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy are a staple of science fiction — but they’re not as common in the real world. Most of the time, the chatbots and artificial intelligence “robots” we encounter are programmed to be extraverted, confident and cheerful. But what if that changed?

Read more of Nell’s reporting on the topic here.

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This episode was produced by Hannah Chinn and edited by Rebecca Ramirez. Nell Greenfieldboyce checked the facts. Jimmy Keeley was the audio engineer.