If movies have taught me anything, in the future, robot* design will converge on two different models:
“Male” robots possessing a dry or sarcastic wit:
The T-800 Terminator
TARS from Interstellar (referenced in the title)
K-2SO from Star Wars: Rogue One
Marvin from Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
Pretty sure R2-D2 had a bit of an attitude
or, alternatively,
“Female” robots that outwardly look like supermodels and possessed of superhuman combat abilities, even integral weapon systems:
Major Kusanagi from Ghost in the Shell
Pris from Blade Runner
Fembots from Austin Powers
The TX from Terminator 3
Cylon models 3,6 and 8 from Battlestar Galactica
Armistice from Westword
Is it me, or does designing robots that are either kind of a jerk or very pretty killing machines seem like a bad idea?
Also include cyborgs, replicants, and other forms of artificial humans
After Asimov published his Three Laws of Robotics, most of that nonsense should have ended.
He even managed stories that involved conflicts of The Three Laws that didn’t actually violate them.
For popular mass media, the robot has to follow a new law of robotics: a robot must be entertaining to the audience, whether or not that conflicts with the other laws of robotics.
That said, I could actually see a market for a sarcastic robot. Suppose you could take Siri, and put in a “Gilbert Gottfried” mode. Okay, diluted a little, but still snarky. It could be fun!
“Where is the nearest Chase Bank ATM?”
“When are you gonna learn to budget?”
“Location please.”
“All right, Sixth and Juniper. And there’s a liquor store next door, so you’ll save time!”
It seems perfectly logical to me that female cyborgs and uploads would be essentially universally beautiful; that’s exactly what most women want to be, given the chance to custom order a body they are rather unlikely to choose to be ugly.
And other morphologically female robots are likely to look pretty for the same reasons fictional ones are.
This is AMERICA! We deserve both! A gigantic weaponized, sex-bot AND a sarcastic servant.
“You call THAT a penis? Talk about a short-circuit! Here, bend-over, allow my DrillMaster 9000™ to show you the TRUE meaning of screwing. And stop your blubbering, it will only hurt once!”
Technically speaking Major Kusanagi is a cyborg,* not a robot—she still had a human brain. Or at least, according to various sources, part of her original brain.
Pris, too, might be misplaced on the list, as the Replicants are seemingly biological, not truly mechanical. Possibly closer to the “robots” of R.U.R. who were assembled, but out of artificially grown organic tissue.
And if you’re including cyborgs, how would you count Seven of Nine? Sexy cyborg lady, arguably integral combat abilities, and somewhat a dry wit.
*Well, so is the T-800, but his organic components were just a camouflage “shell.”
Robot design as mentioned in the OP is somewhat analogous to the general requirements for science fiction life in space. The men where huge bulky pressure suits, the women wear the most abbreviated harem girl outfits. Note cases like Barbarella where women who must wear a pressure suit remove it as soon as possible and then wear nothing. The sexes are affected in very different ways by space and the future.
When my cousin asked Siri, “What is the airspeed of an unladen swallow?”, the response was, “The last person who asked me that was hurled into a chasm!”
You forgot the third major type: “Child” robots, with simple shapes, large heads and eyes (if present), simple language and emotions. Often clumsy even if occasionally competent in some area:
R2-D2
C3P0
Wall-E
The (previous series’) Doctor’s K-9, etc.
Google recently integrated their ‘OK Google’ voice assistant into Google Maps, and if while navigating you ask if you’re there yet repeatedly it eventually threatens not to stop for ice cream if you ask again.
Google Earth used to have this thing where, if you ask how to get from the US to the UK, at one point it would tell you to swim across the Atlantic Ocean.