I'm starting to put together a few notes and plan for a story I plan on writing in the near future once I've finished my current project, and one of the main themes I've settled on is 'artificial AI.' I plan on setting the story in the near-future and doing what I can to humanise a robot character, giving it personality, 'emotions' and doing everything I can to make this character just as relatable as the human characters. I've never written any non-human characters before so it's a completely new challenge to me- I assume there's plenty of good books and stories out there with well-written relatable robotic personalities, could anyone recommend me some good examples I could learn from? More general tips about writing this kind of character would be hugely appreciated as well, thanks in advance!
For starters, the Terminator movies, AI by Steven Spielberg (this one is probably the most important), Bicentennial Man, I Robot.
Depends on the technology level you plan to use. I'd take a look at all those pet-bots that have sold millions world wide. There are some key marketable features the bots have that make them attractive emotionally. Check this TED blog out that covers a TED Talk: 7 covetable toys that blurred the line between robot, pet and friend
For examples, start with the late, great Isaac Asimov. Gene Roddenberry returned several times to the "sentient machine" theme - not only Data, but also Landru, Daystrom's M5, several other original Trek episodes, and his unsold series The Questor Tapes. James P Hogan also explored machine intelligence and sentience in The Two Faces of Tomorrow. The important element in all these treatments is finding the human element in the machine. All these characters are attempts to explore what constitutes sentience.
Ah, those are exactly the sort of examples I was looking for- thanks Cogito! The TED article's very useful too, had forgotten just how terrifying Furbies were though haha. Cheers guys
