Apparently people do not feel shy, awkward or pressured when talking to a robot since they are becoming more realistic in our world. The first object we considered a robot was a simple machine that had the ability to perform a certain action, but now they even look like humans or creatures, depending on the use you want to give it.
Hollywood has done a very good job in its movies showing us what we imagine robots doing for us in the future. For example, cleaning the house, doing our chores, responsibilities and sometimes even do our work.
It appears that in Japan, people feel more comfortable when speaking to androids. They could replace people working at stores selling merchandise and customers have said that they feel more comfortable when speaking to an android employee than to a human because they might feel some pressure after they indicate they’re interested in making a purchase.
“But they don’t hesitate to talk to the android,” said Osaka University professor, Hiroshi Ishiguro at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, adding that a “robot never tells a lie, and that is why the android can sell lots of clothes,” as reported by TIME.
They might replace us soon
Ishiguro and his lab at the University have been studying and testing real-world applications of robots and how people would react to them, according to Adweek, and have found numerous possibilities like providing a practice partner for foreign languages and assisting shoppers.
Nowadays even if you have not thought about it, you personally have spoken to a robot. Think of it, already there are robots in this time, such as Google’s voice recognition or Apple’s Siri; you have spoken to one of these at least once and people don’t seem to feel awkward about it, and in Ishiguro’s view, new applications and personal robots are likely.
If we deeply think about it, people became got used to a winking paperclip with Microsoft’s Office Assistant more than a decade ago, and voice recognition systems like Apple’s Siri have gone mainstream. When considering this, then Ishiguro may be right.
“They never get tired and never go to the toilet—or at least I assume,” said Ishiguro about robots.
Source: TIME
Like on the program “NCIS: Los Angeles” I am not aware if it would be a prop, but the character Hetty Lang uses one of those robots that have a screen at the top and she communicates with someone in her apartment in Moscow while she is in LA.