It started off as a joke,
then it became an allegory.
Most people don’t like the idea of being compared to a robot because it strips them of their human qualities. Robots are servile, emotionless, and non-sentient.
As long as I’ve worked on the internet, I have been known to skip nights of sleep in the name of deadlines. I take instructions and learning curves rather well. I require little to be able to work a lot. I like the big picture, and am very comfortable sacrificing personal preferences to further the greater good.
I have often been compared to a robot.
It’s not that I lack emotion or a sense of self, it’s just that for me, those attributes do not take precedence over the same motivation for robots: To perform a given task as efficiently as possible.
Robots are here to help. That’s why they exist.
Like a robot, I am also here to help.