Your Next Lover, Therapist, and Friend Could Be a Robot

Advanced AI’s that humans can form a strong emotional bond with are a staple of science fiction. But could people one day actually form relationships with robots powered by AI? » Subscribe to Seeker! (then hit the little 🔔 icon and select “all.“) » Watch more Elements! » Visit our shop at Androids are constantly improving but…well, let’s face it—they’re still pretty bad. There’s just something about them that still isn’t right and that could keep people from forming connections with them. They often fall into what’s been dubbed the uncanny valley, an idea introduced in the 1970s by Japanese roboticist Masahiro Mori. He noticed how people seemed repulsed by things that were very close to human, but not quite there. Because of the informal nature of the concept’s creation, it’s existence is actually a topic of debate among psychologists, with some proposing that there’s no well-defined valley per se, just an uncanny phen