Why do we like robots more when they mess up?
You might have seen the GIF above floating round the ‘net recently. It comes from a recent TED talk given by Boston Dynamics, and shows the company’s latest bipedal Atlas robots failing — delightfully — to perform some light office admin. Now Boston Dynamics’ bots are no strangers to going viral, but usually they’re framed as harbingers of the robo-apocalypse. This time round the reaction has been much more sympathetic. Even a little affectionate.
“I legitimately feel sorry for a robot. The future is going to be weird,” said one commenter on Reddit, where the GIF was submitted to the r/aww sub-reddit alongside adorable kittens and puppies. “That was the cutest thing I’ve ever seen a robot do. Poor guy tried so hard,” said another in…
