Losing interest is human - or is it?

After doing something for a certain amount of time, you eventually lose interest. What comes after is the state of being bored: nothing is interesting at the moment, and you feel somewhat dull. You might yawn, start napping, but in any case, you do not feel stimulated or challenged to actually do something.

The Cambridge dictionary states the definition of boredom as: "feeling unhappy because something is not interesting or because you have nothing to do". 

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/bored

This feeling of being completely uninterested, tired or understimulated could be seen as an emotion, hence why this could also be seen as a human trait. There are also signs that animals can feel bored too, and might even have adverse effects if they are left like this for an extended period of time: https://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2017/08/10/542438808/dogs-and-pigs-get-bored-too#:~:text=Bored%20animals%20seek%20out%20ways,them%20learn%20about%20their%20world.

When you think about it, this could be seen as the complete opposite to how a robot is made to act. A task for a robot can be quite tedious, which is maybe also why we leave such tasks to them in the first place. However, robots will do exactly how they are told and will not stop until either we tell them to stop, or until the robot is literally falling apart. It does not happen that robots might 'slack' or 'lose interest' after some time, because they do not need motivation in the form of (external) stimulation to start their task. 

An example of a robot that steps into the direction of boredom is "Mimus", a robot that is created to be interested and also lose interest in people passing by. https://www.vice.com/en/article/mgp8yn/industrial-robot-reprogrammed-to-get-bored 

This robot has an 'attention span'. Factors that influence how long the robot remains interested in you, are your features: your height, proximity, how long you are at the installation,  and whether you are standing in a group.