A robot is a machine that can carry out tasks automatically, often controlled by a computer program and sometimes able to sense and respond to its environment. Robots can look like humans, animals, or just machines.
From Czech *robota* “forced labor, drudgery,” popularized by Karel Čapek’s 1920 play *R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots).* In the play, robots were artificial workers designed to serve humans.
Robot started as a word for miserable forced labor, not cool shiny machines. All our friendly movie robots still carry that shadow: they were invented in stories as workers built to do the jobs humans didn’t want to do.
Robots have often been gendered in fiction and design—military or industrial robots coded as male, and service or companion robots coded as female, reflecting stereotypes about strength, care, and subservience. Female‑coded robots have frequently been sexualized or depicted as compliant assistants.
Avoid defaulting to gendered pronouns or stereotypical roles for robots; use “it” or role‑based descriptors unless a specific character identity is relevant. Question design choices that sexualize or feminize robots primarily in service roles.
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