Do you like your robots subservient and complimentary, or glib and a little bit cheeky? A patent that has just been awarded to Google suggests that either could be possible and that we could potentially download different personality types from the cloud.

In fact, if you can't choose what kind of personality you want for your future robo-pal, it's highly possible that it might be able to choose for you. It would do this by accessing your devices and learning about you, before configuring a tailored personality based on that information. In addition it could use speech and facial recognition to personalise its interactions with you.

The original question posed still stands though -- you could potentially always choose a specific personality type for your Google robot that represents the kind of person you enjoy interacting with. This personality could even be triggered by specific cues or circumstances that the robot could detect, says the patent, which was spotted by Quartz. "The robot personality may also be modifiable within a base personality construct (i.e., a default-persona) to provide states or moods representing transitory conditions of happiness, fear, surprise, perplexion (e.g., the Woody Allen robot), thoughtfulness, derision (e.g., the Rodney Dangerfield robot), and so forth," states the patent.


It also suggests that should a cruel fate befall your robot, that might not spell the end of its days. It's possible that if you uploaded its personality to the cloud you might be able to transfer it to another robot. Unlike Newton and Stephanie from Short Circuit who were devastated when they believed their beloved Johnny Five had been destroyed, you never need get emotional over or be concerned about the physical destruction of your robot.

A more concerning concept perhaps though is that a robot could be programmed to take on the personality of a real-world person -- the patent suggests a deceased loved one or a celebrity -- so that effectively you could get someone to live on after their death in robot form. And right about that point it all starts getting a bit Black Mirror.

Meka

We'd probably be cool with a robot Taylor Swift or Andrew WK to issue kind, wise words and life and party advice to us though.


From the vaguely creepy to the eminently useful (providing the security is right) robots could also share information with one another over the cloud, providing "a kind of teleportation capability for the robot". Imagine flying halfway across the world to find that your home robot had shared all of its knowledge about you with the robot butler in your hotel room. It might greet you by name, plump your pillows just how you like them, and wake you up with your favourite coffee in the morning.

Robots aren't quite up to these challenges just yet -- being restricted as much by hardware as they are by software/personality challenges. This technology is obviously just a patent thus far, but given that it's no secret quite how many robotics companies Google has bought over the past year, it would almost be surprising if it wasn't working on something like this.

A quick straw poll of the WIRED.co.uk team suggests the existing robot personalities we'd like to have a beer with include Marvin, the Paranid Android; R2D2 ("cute"); Wall-E ("he'd be uplifting"); George the first humanoid robot; Robbie the Robot (for "retro charm"); and Optimus Prime. We'd steer clear of evil Megatron and amoral Ava from Ex-Machina. We're also not so keen on C-3P0 ("too much of a nag").