CHAPTER 2

Robot Exposure: In the Media and In Our Midst

Chapter Overview

In this chapter, we review two of the three main sources of current public opinion about robots, namely, robots as portrayed in the entertainment media and present-day robots with which consumers interact. The third source, news coverage/expert commentary, is discussed in later chapters. The fictional robots from films, TV shows and books that have left the greatest impression on our collective psyche include everything from positive images of robots (such as C3PO and R2D2 from the Star Wars franchise) to extremely negative images (such as the killer Terminator robots), which helps explain why the public has a mixed view regarding what a robot future may bring. Present-day robots used by consumers are fairly simplistic, helping with basic household chores (such as Roomba robotic vacuums) or serving as toys/simple playmates (such as Chip the Robot Dog). Hence, consumers are more likely to think about robots in these basic roles. Our surveys show that, to a large degree, the American public is generally unaware of the more advanced capabilities that robots can already perform, mainly because these more advanced robots are not yet widely utilized.

Sources of Opinions about Robots

When thinking about people’s current opinions regarding robots, we must first consider what are the main sources influencing those opinions. There are three major sources today from which people can form their opinions of robots:

Source #1: Robots in the entertainment media. We have all encountered fictionalized representations of robots in books we have read and TV shows and films we have watched, as well as video games we have played. These representations, though dramatized, cannot help but leave an impact on our views of robots.

Source #2: Robots we currently encounter in our day-to-day lives. Though we are still at the very early stages of the human-interactive phase of the robot revolution, there are already numerous robotic devices we encounter in our daily lives. As we advance through the next several years, we will all have significantly more interactions with such early stage social robots and these initial interactions will impact our views for the years and decades ahead.

Source #3: News coverage, expert commentary, books and articles. Many people are reading about current robot advances and predictions about the robot future (just as you are right now!). In these books, articles, videos, and blogs, consumers encounter commentary from practitioners, researchers, or other types of prognosticators, both hopeful and fearful about the robot future, which likely impact their attitudes.

We will review the first two of these sources in this chapter, and how they might impact opinions. We touch on news coverage and expert commentary throughout several other chapters of this book and hence will not focus on it here.

Most Memorable Robots from the Entertainment Media

Robots have played an outsized role in films, TV shows, video games, and books for the past several decades. Humans are, in many ways, obsessed with robots. We enjoy watching them on a television, computer, or film screen or reading about them in novels. In some stories, robots have served as friendly and faithful companions, helping their human associates through a range of challenges. In other stories, robots are the enemy, a powerful and malevolent foe that is intent on destroying humans. Which of these media images have been most impactful on consumers?

In one of our national surveys of American adults (sample size = 476), we asked respondents, “When you think of robots from any book, movie or TV show that you have seen, what one or two specific robots come to mind?” It was an open-ended question, meaning no answer options were given before or during the question, so that we truly get what automatically pops into people’s minds. Interestingly, the responses show that there is a clear mix of positive and negative media images of robots that are most commonly recalled by American consumers. The results are shown in Table 2.1.

Table 2.1 Most commonly recalled (top of the mind) robots from the entertainment media

The two friendly Star Wars robots, R2D2 and C3PO, top the list of fictionalized robots that are recalled without any prompting. These two mechanical companions are portrayed in the blockbuster franchise (which includes films, TV shows, books, and video games) as trustworthy, loyal, and always supportive of their human companions. R2D2 can even be considered cute, due to its relatively diminutive size and communication through high-pitched beeps and tweets. As one study respondent told us, I grew up with Star Wars, and C3PO and R2D2 were always my favorite robots. They were always dependable. And funny, like a comedy duo. And C3PO, he was more human than the human characters. He was more scared than the humans most of the time. A quarter of adult Americans think of these friendly Star Wars robots when asked to think of any robots from the entertainment media.

However, second on the list is a more menacing portrayal of robots from the 2004 film I, Robot, based loosely on a collection of short stories by acclaimed science fiction author Isaac Asimov. In the film, the highly intelligent and resourceful robots, who have a humanoid look with somewhat eerie humanlike faces, attempt a violent uprising against their human masters. While these robots are portrayed in a fairly complex manner that is not purely evil, they are still menacing and cause harm to humans. Robots in the film are portrayed as having self-awareness, emotions, and coming to the decision that humans are not the best group to be ruling the planet, and perhaps robots would be better in that role. Just over one in five American adults think of these robots when asked about fictionalized robots in general.

The third most commonly recalled media portrayal of robots comes from several decades ago, the friendly and hardworking mechanical household maid from the 1960s TV cartoon series The Jetsons (which had a couple of more recent short-lived reboots). Rosie, the robotic maid, was portrayed as a hardworking and friendly housekeeper who helped keep the Jetson family and their house in order. Rosie was metallic, generally humanoid in shape, moved about on wheels and wore a traditional maid’s apron. As one of our study respondents, in her early 50s, stated, When I think of robots I still think of Rosie on The Jetsons. I always thought it would be so cool to have a robot maid that would do all the work around the house.Seventeen percent of adult Americans recall Rosie when they think of fictionalized robots.

Not far behind Rosie is Wall-E, the main character from the 2008 PIXAR film of the same name. Wall-E is a small and cute robot, who resembles a little tractor, with large, soulful eyes. Wall-E’s job is to sort trash on a garbage-strewn planet Earth. The movie also features a crew of helpful robots aboard a space station, serving relatively helpless and overweight humans (who have grown helpless and overweight, in part, due to the attentiveness of their robot servants). Sixteen percent of adult Americans think of the kind-hearted and friendly little robot Wall-E when they think of robots in entertainment.

Fifth on our list is among the most negative and frightening portrayal imaginable of robots. This comes from The Terminator film franchise. In these films, robots in the future—who resemble terrifying metallic skeletons with glowing red eyes—have almost destroyed all of humanity. These robots also travel back in time in a realistically human form to relentlessly track and attempt to assassinate the human protagonists. As one study respondent told us, Oh my god, Terminator scared the crap out of me when I first saw it. I think I was too young when I first saw it. The Terminator was unstoppable. It just wanted to kill, kill, kill. And as the movie goes on it looks less human and more robot until it is totally a robot. I got nightmares from that. This nightmarish portrayal of robots is top-of-mind for 15 percent of adult Americans when they think of fictionalized robots.

The most recalled robots from entertainment are clearly a mixture of positive portrayals (C3PO, R2D2, Rosie, and Wall-E) and negative portrayals (robots from I, Robot and Terminator films). With this mix of positive and negative portrayals of robots serving as our top-of-mind media references, it is not surprising that our research finds that Americans have highly mixed views of a future filled with robots—both hopeful and fearful (we will dive into their hopes and fears in detail in the next chapter). There is a bit of both R2D2 and Terminator on our minds when we think about the possible robot future.

Top Grossing Robot Movies

IMDb (Internet Movie Database) has compiled the top 35 grossing films (based on US domestic gross earnings) which involve a robot, android, or cyborg as a main character. The list is an interesting one (see Table 2.2). First, it shows the massive popularity of these types of movies, with combined US earnings approaching $5 billion dollars. Consumers appear to be intrigued by all things robotic, at least in entertainment. Second, it displays the extreme diversity of movies that fall into this category, showcasing robots of all shapes and sizes, with robots playing the hero and villain and everything in between. Consumers appear interested in watching robot movies that are dark and scary (Terminator franchise), fun and lighthearted (Robots), full of action and adventure (Transformer franchise), and thoughtful and introspective (AI: Artificial Intelligence).

Table 2.2 Top grossing movies with robots/androids/cyborgs as main characters

Source: IMDb (2019).

Interestingly, several of the top movies in IMDb’s list are from the Transformers series, yet in our survey these robots were not most commonly recalled when respondents were asked to think of robots from the media. It may be that since these characters are portrayed as from another planet, they may be seen more akin to mechanical aliens than robots (not that there is necessarily a difference; however, they may not initially come to mind as traditional “robots”). Also, the Star Wars films are not included by IMDb as movies with robots as main characters. This is surprising, but it may be that with so much going on in the Star Wars films, the roles of C3PO and R2D2 are not enough to classify these films as featuring robot main characters (no doubt there are many who would debate this).

For the most thought-provoking films about intelligent social robots and their implications for future human society, we would suggest Ex Machina (2014), AI: Artificial Intelligence (2001) and the oldie but goodie Blade Runner (1982).

Interactions with Real Robots

While robots are prominent in fiction, they are also beginning to play a greater role in our real-world day-to-day lives. The current robots that people interact with are fairly infantile compared to what is to come. Yet, these nascent interactions are increasingly impacting our view of robots.

Sales data shows the robot revolution is starting to take off. We will look first at home robots, defined as robots consumers use in their home environments. Sales of home robots in the United States were fairly stable at or below $200 million a year from 2012 to 2015. In 2016, they grew to $261 million, then more than doubled in 2017 to $566 million, and then increased significantly again in 2018 to an estimated $688 million (see Table 2.3).

Table 2.3 Sales of home robots in the United States

Note: *Estimated.
Source: Consumer Technology Association (2018).

There are two general types of home robots. The first are relatively simplistic “service robots” such as the suite of household helpers from iRobot, including the Roomba (robot vacuum), Braava (robot mop), and Terra (robot mower). They perform basic household and yard chores. While far less advanced than other robots, they are still intelligent enough to learn from their surroundings, allowing them to complete their chores autonomously. Even the relatively simplistic Roomba vacuum robots have enough on-board sensors (infrared beams, piezoelectric sensors, and touch-sensitive bumpers) and built-in intelligence to “learn” the layout of the house (yes, they remember your rooms) so that they can efficiently complete their vacuuming chores on their own (Woodford 2018).

The second type of home robots play a more interactive role with humans and are often referred to as social robots (Kanda, Ishiguro, and Ishida 2001). These robots serve as pets, interactive toys, or companions. One example of this type of robot is the Lynx Home Robot, which is enabled by Amazon’s Alexa. The Lynx robot, a generally humanoid-shaped robot with a cute, youthful plastic face and lit-up eyes, stands 20 inches tall, is verbally interactive like Alexa, and can play music, make “to do” lists and even teach yoga. Cozmo, made by Anki, is another social robot, quite small in size, which is used as an intelligent, interactive educational robot for children. Cozmo, which is no longer being sold (more on this in a later chapter), is programmed with artificial intelligence software that allows it to express any number of feelings and play a variety of games. Further, it has facial recognition abilities allowing it to remember faces and names.

Then there is Chip, the robot dog, made by WowWee Group, which does many of the things a real dog can do, such as fetching, learning tricks and nuzzling, all without the shedding of a real dog. It has sensors so it is aware of its surroundings at all times, including where the humans are. It sees and can respond to your gestures, as well as to your voice commands. See Figure 2.1.

Figure 2.1 Chip the robot dog

People who have the opportunity to own and/or experience today’s household service robots can more easily envision robots playing a supportive, servant-like role for domestic chores. People who have the opportunity to own and/or experience today’s social robots can more easily envision robots playing an increasing role in entertaining and educational settings. These robot roles are still fairly narrow and prescribed, and generally viewed positively. The most advanced robots of today are not yet out in full view of the larger public.

Awareness of What Robots Are Currently Doing

The most advanced of today’s robots are already capable of doing a wide variety of fairly complex activities; however, much of this is not yet fully visible to the average person. Consider the following:

• Robotic pharmacists. At a pharmacy at the University of California, San Francisco, robots are already doing all the work. They are receiving prescription orders, packaging, and dispensing them. During the first phase trial run of 350,000 doses, there were no errors (Hill 2017). No humans are needed at that pharmacy.
• Robotic chef. Moley Robotics, headquartered in the United Kingdom, developed a robotic chef that can cook over 100 meals. That is far more meals than at least one of this book’s authors can cook. The company expects this to soon expand to thousands of recipes (Huen 2016).
• Robotic phlebotomist. Veebot, from Veebot Systems, Inc., is a robot that can draw your blood. Using infrared light and ultrasound technology, combined with artificial intelligence, it is 83 percent accurate at finding a proper vein for drawing blood, which is on par with a trained human phlebotomist. Yet, it performs the procedure faster than a human, which might be nice for those of us who do not enjoy the experience (Jung 2013).

How aware are consumers of these and other capabilities of current robots? While consumers are aware of some of the activities robots are currently doing, they are, in fact, fairly unaware of many of the more advanced existing capabilities of robots. In one of our national surveys (sample size = 345), we asked respondents if they were aware or not that robots are capable of the following 25 activities (all of which robots can do as of late 2019). Results are provided in Table 2.4.

Table 2.4 Awareness of current (actual) robot capabilities

Note: For references for these current robot capabilities, see the list of sources in Appendix B.

Not surprising, given that home service robots are somewhat common already, a vast majority of adult Americans are aware that robots can perform simple chores like vacuuming, washing floors, and sorting packages. Also not surprising given the many home social robots currently for sale, a strong majority of adult Americans are aware of the basic social functions robots can perform, such as greeting people and acting as pets. And given the publicity of robots such as Watson (the IBM supercomputer) performing on TV game shows like Jeopardy, it is not surprising that roughly two-thirds of adult Americans know that robots can win at games.

However, there is still a significant lack of awareness regarding many other current robot capabilities. This is likely because these activities are not yet commonly witnessed by a large number of consumers, and for some it may seem too advanced to believe. There is low to moderate awareness that robots can currently perform basic service functions such as wash dishes and iron and fold clothing. There is almost no awareness that robots can undertake more advanced activities such as cook meals, draw blood, and perform annual health checkups. This lack of awareness may end in the next few years, as human-interactive robots become more and more commonplace in society.

Forecasting a Robot Explosion

Forecasts for the near future suggest an explosion in the sale of robots made to interact closely with humans. We will explore these types of robots under three headings: personal service robots, collaborative robots, and robots in the health care industry. There is overlap in these categorizations. However, industry forecasts are under these headings, so a review is worthwhile.

Personal service robots include the home robots mentioned earlier in the chapter which serve as domestic helpers and companions. They also include similar robots used in customer service industries such as hotels, hospitals, and restaurants, as well as robots meant for entertainment and leisure. These robots have been forecast to more than double in sales in the United States between 2017 and 2021 (see Table 2.5).

Table 2.5 Projected worldwide sales of personal service robots

Source: Statista (2019).

A collaborative robot is defined as a robot that is designed to interact with humans, in the home, workplace, or community. This includes the more advanced robots of the personal service category, as well as interactive robots that might be serving in a factory or jobsite. The key is these are collaborative robots with which people will communicate and otherwise interact closely. Worldwide sales of these robots are expected to grow dramatically over the next few years (see Table 2.6).

Table 2.6 Projected worldwide sales of collaborative robots

Note: Figures projected.
Source: Statista (2018).

Health care is a growing need across the planet, as humanity experiences an aging trend never seen before. Health care is also a labor intensive sector. As many of the examples already discussed in this book suggest, companies are aggressively turning to robotics to help them with their labor needs in health care. The medical robots market is projected to reach $22.1 billion by 2027, growing significantly from an estimated $6.46 billion in 2018 (Singh 2019). The role robots will play in health care is expected to be particularly critical. Hence, we devote an entire chapter to this topic later in the book.

The recent and projected sales data reviewed in this chapter shows that the rise of a human-robot interactive world has started, and will accelerate dramatically in the very near future. And still, most people are not fully aware of current robotic capabilities, and most are not yet prepared for the robot revolution that is coming.

Implications for Consumer Behavior and Marketing Strategy

Marketers need to start thinking seriously about how robots might be utilized in consumer-facing roles in their industry. They need to pay attention to advances in robotics and consider the various consumer interactions in which robots could play a role, as well as understand what that customer-robot encounter should be like, and what type of robot would fit best. Even if a company has no plans to use robots in the near future in consumer-facing roles or sell robots directly to consumers, it is likely that their current competitors, or new completely unexpected competitors, are starting to explore this possibility. We suggest marketers read articles and blogs in any of their trusted industry’s sources, or attend conference presentations dealing with the use of robots in their industry. For general updates on advancements in robotics (from a business-friendly, less tech-heavy perspective), you can check out any of these sources:robotics.org, robohub.org, roboticsbusinessreview.com. In later chapters, we will provide a more detailed framework to think about the use of robots in consumer-facing roles, but as the forecast data shown in this chapter suggests, the robot wave is at hand and robots will increasingly be part of everyday business.

Marketers need to also keep in mind that most consumers are not yet aware of many of the developments going on in robotics, and will likely react with shock and even some pushback as robots are increasingly utilized by businesses in consumer-facing roles, especially if robots are taking on more advanced tasks. Further, any industry that wishes to use robots in public roles will be competing with the powerhouse of the entertainment industry in creating an overall image of the pros and cons of robots. Hence, robots can use continual positive public relations to showcase to consumers what they are capable of doing and how they can improve consumers’ everyday lives. Hanson Robotics has been doing this by participating in talk shows and news programs showcasing its highly advanced Sophia android, where Sophia has conversations with TV show hosts. The TV advertisements from iRobot do this as well, promoting the capabilities of their home robots. Videos on social media and on robotic company websites, such as those for Buddy the companion robot (http://www.bluefrogrobotics.com/robot/), also do an effective job in showcasing the advancement of robots. Companies need to continually communicate the improvement in the robots they are developing and show how these robots can help successfully service the wants and needs of consumers. We discuss how this should be done throughout the book.