I think that people want both, but not in the same machine. Having a robot buddy that washes the dishes and cleans your room is too close to having a slave for most people to stomach.
My 14 year old roomba has algorithms that are dumber than all livestock I can think of; my pet tropical fish exhibit better path finding abilities when I feed them.
When the roomba unintelligently, yet effectively, cleans my room I do not feel any danger of human anthropomorphism.
Much like airplanes are not imitations of birds, its unlikely household robots will be mistaken for human slaves. A lot of time was wasted in the development years of heavier than air flight by trying to poorly imitate birds using machines.
Much like airplanes are not imitations of birds, its unlikely household robots will be mistaken for human slaves. A lot of time was wasted in the development years of heavier than air flight by trying to poorly imitate birds using machines.