Jack Williamson goes one step further with the sublimely sinister robots in The Humanoids , who protect mankind at all cost, including any activity considered unsafe. Williamson imagined us building robots too good, that like the Genie with the three wishes, we fail to comprehend the ramifications of our desires for an orderly society. In The Humanoids , robots are built to create a better society, and the robotic rulers decide what's best for the affairs of mankind. In a way, these are the ancestors of modern robots, because eventually readers and movie goers preferred friendly robots. Our society loves machines, and for decades robots have been good comic relief.
Humans love to anthropomorphize, and friendly machines make good characters.
In other words, if it looks like a woman, talks like a woman, does you know what like a woman, then hell, it's good enough. The Next Generation who is fully functional in all ways. Data has his own legion of groupies called Spiner Fems, after the actor who plays him, Brent Spiner. Tanith Lee in 1982 took this to the next level with The Silver Metal Lover , a novel about love and robots. In less explicit functions, the trend in humanizing robots continued until there were robot grandmothers and teachers and playmates.