I've been a researcher in the field of human-robot interaction for a while, and I'm not too sure this article's claims will remain true in the future. There is

I've been a researcher in the field of human-robot interaction for a while, and I'm not too sure this article's claims will remain true in the future. There is significant interest in robots and computers achieving social competencies including tasks like storytelling, empathetic interactions, creative collaboration, and even traditional psychotherapy. The surprising part is that humans are (at least for now) generally very accepting of and engaged with the robots/AI performing these tasks. Interestingly of the hundreds of people I've personally worked with in these types of studies, only a couple have ever viewed the technology as "a tool" or "non-social agent". Maybe people won't accept these kinds of systems once widespread, but for now there is significant interest in developing them. For a small example, just scan the titles of this year's HRI conference [1]. [1] http://humanrobotinteraction.org/2015/program-2/proceedings-table-of-contents/ http://humanrobotinteraction.org/2015/program-2/proceedings-...