bots like you

Intelligent robots are all the rage nowadays, but what about emotional robots? And creative robots? Or even useless, curious, helpless, pooping or misbehaving robots? Yes, even religious robots.

Does researching these bots with 'unique' human or lifelike qualities make us less or more human? And why should we care?

This website contains inspirational examples demonstrating that bots can be more than just smart, and that by studying bots like you we can learn more about who we are as humans and animals. Explore the menus above for food for thought.

A small disclaimer: we will not even start to define what a bot is, as that could warrant a separate blog by itself. For now we simply state that we are interested in the entire spectrum from the 100 per cent artificial to cyborg combinations of man and machine, and from completely digital to completely analog or physical creatures.

News: Critters 2023 Expo at Nacht van Ontdekkingen / Days of Art and Science | On-demand lesson for high school students on Robots & Religion | New course on artificial creatures started | More news...

Bots Like You is brought to you by Peter van der Putten and Maarten Lamers, playful researchers in the Media Technology research group, Leiden University. This collection is incomplete and subjective by design. It mixes work from established artists and scientists, with work by our student researchers. Contact us for feedback, questions or to tip us on additional examples you think we should consider to add, interviews or for speaking requests.