Star Wars Droids Top Sci-Fi Robots Survey

The Star Wars droids C-3PO (left) and R2-D2 (right) were the most popular science fiction robots in a recent survey by Conversica. Credit: Disney | Lucasfilm Disney seems to have a lock on many of the more popular science fiction robots between owning Lucasfilm's Star Wars franchise and the beloved animation studio Pixar. A recent survey of Americans found that the Star Wars robot duo of R2-D2 and C-3PO topped the choices of people's favorite sci-fi robots driven by artificial intelligence, followed closely by Pixar's trash-compacting robot WALL-E. Commander Data, a pasty-looking android with a much more humanlike appearance from "Star Trek: The Next Generation," came in last. It's tempting to conclude that Americans may prefer their sci-fi robots and artificial intelligence to have a more machine-style appearance rather than resemble humans too closely. That is certainly the interpretation proposed by Conversica, a firm dedicated to building conversational AI for marketing and sales, after it commissioned the online poll using Google Surveys. But it's just as plausible that the results merely reflect a popularity contest where two robots who happen to feature throughout most of the hugely popular and resurgent Star Wars franchise had the most name recognition. After all, Commander Data's albino android character featured in just one of the many Star Trek TV shows--and it's associated films--that ran from the late 1980s until the early 2000s. By comparison, R2-D2 and C-3PO have appeared in every single Star Wars film, including the original trilogy that debuted in the late 1970s, the follow-up prequel trilogy that basically spanned the early to mid 2000s, and the more recent sequel trilogy that began in late 2015 and continues in 2017 with "Star Wars: The Last Jedi." The spunky astromech droid and his golden, fussy protocol droid companion even make an appearance in the 2016 standalone Star Wars film "Rogue One."