If you haven’t seen it before, you should check out Sony’s attempt to design “cuteness” into a robot. The Aibo is modeled after a small cuddly dog (though I guess one doesn’t usually equate metal and plastic with cuddly). According to Sony, it learns from its environment, and has a personality that develops depending on its interactions with others (think Tamigatchi). If you don’t like the way your little pup is growing up, you can “reset it to its puppy stage.”

I wish someone would reset me to my puppy stage.

NewScientist reports that Sony is experimenting for the next litter by programming in curiosity:

Each of the new Aibo dogs was given two software control mechanisms. Firstly, a “low-level learning system” which controls simple behaviour but also tries to predict how this will affect the surrounding sensory world - how kicking a ball will cause it to move across the floor, for example. Secondly, a “meta-learning system” which analyses the accuracy of predictions made by the low-level system and controls overall “motivation”.

Interaction between these two components is critical to the reprogrammed Aibos’ uncannily inquisitive nature. The meta-learning system prompts the robot dogs to pursue behaviours that they can rapidly learn to predict, but which also have maximum learning potential. This tends to makes the robot dogs inherently curious, seeking out increasingly complicated scenarios with which to interact. But it also means they will effectively become bored with activities that do not stimulate them to their, albeit artificial, satisfaction.