Step aside Data, Terminator, and all you other androids...

A scientist in Japan has created a rather human looking android.  As of yet it can only stay in a seated position and move it’s upper body (connected to a “nearby air compressor”).  This is type of research is pretty interesting to me and I can see one day robots performing labor type jobs, such as in super market checkouts, fast food industry positions, etc.  But if those robots looked like Repliee Q1 from the article, how would we react to them?  Would we still talk to them?  Would we still expect to hear “Have a nice day”?  Would we still answer that with “you too”?

I’ll have to admit, the as soon as I opened the article and started reading the first thing that jumped into my head was the movie AI.