In this TED Talk, Guy Hoffman explains how he used inspiration from Pixar and his background in animation and acting to create a robot with “soul”.

The lack of personality in the current robot designs has led to a barrier between human and robot relationships. Now that robots are being infused with emotion, this leads the way to a “user-friendly” technology that has a wide variety of applications.

In fact, robots can be used in medical surgeries, as a support for the ill or elderly, as bellhops in hotels and other uses that require a certain level of emotional intelligence.

How important do you think it is for robots of the future to have “soul”?