British Researcher Building Humanoid Robot for Social Experiments
A UK podcast host and academic is creating a robot in his likeness to study social responses and promote ethical thinking about AI and robotics
Luke Robert Mason is not just theorizing about the future—he is constructing a lifelike robotic version of himself to explore how people respond to humanlike machines. A podcast host and postgraduate researcher at the University of Warwick, Mason has embarked on an audacious experiment to understand how humans interact with machines that look and behave like them.
“My name is Luke Robert Mason. I’m making Luke Robots Mason,” he told TechJournal.uk during the 2025 Humanoids Summit in London. “I’m researching humanoid robots, and more specifically, how human beings choose to interact with humanoid robots—in other words, robots that look like us in the image and likeness of us.”
His project aims to provoke new thinking on human identity, presence, and empathy.
“What I’m interested in is how people choose to respond to the robot,” he said. “Are they shocked, surprised, interested? Do they choose to interact with it? Do they choose not to interact with it? How do we as human beings recognize the face of the other?”
Engineering Human Likeness
At this year’s Humanoids Summit, he filmed roboticists explaining their design philosophies. Mason was also documenting the entire process.
“We’re currently shooting a documentary project to try and find out: one, how do you create a humanoid robot, and two, what it means for those building those robots,” he explained.
He has been capturing footage of each design and assembly phase, aiming to use this material as an educational tool that demystifies how humanoid robots are constructed and what ethical questions emerge along the way.
“The process of going through and making something that looks like you, that attempts to act like you, forces you to think about what it means to be human,” he said. “That’s why documenting it is so powerful—it helps the public understand not just the technology, but the thinking behind it.”
Mason is collaborating with creative technologist Keegan Neve, a UK-based hobbyist roboticist known for building 3D-printed robots.
“Keegan is a creative technologist who solves problems,” Mason said. “He was building 3D-printed robots when I met him at Warwick, and we decided to see if we could create something convincingly humanlike.”
Although still under construction, the robot is expected to travel and spark public debate.
“The thing that I love about humanoid robots is that they tell us something about what it means to be human,” he noted. “In the process of creating a robot in the image and likeness of us, we learn so much about ourselves.”
To finance this ambitious work, Mason relies on his broader portfolio as a science communicator. The project forms part of his PhD research. It is supported through collaborations with technologists and special effects experts, while his media activities—such as producing podcasts and documentaries—help sustain the operational costs.
“The podcast is an independent project. It’s part of my work, which is science communication,” he explained. “What I’m really interested in is how you communicate with the public about how you do science and technology—the process of technologizing the future.”
He also draws on his previous collaborations with institutions such as the British Library, Science Museum, Victoria & Albert Museum, IBM Watson, and Nesta, which have helped him build a network of partners supportive of experimental work. His production company, No Troublemakers Media, has produced science-based content for organizations including MIT Technology Review and PBS, allowing him to cross-fund projects and reinvest revenues into his research.
The Futures Podcast
Beyond his research, Mason runs The Futures Podcast, a British independent science and technology podcast that convenes scientists, engineers, roboticists, philosophers, and artists to discuss the possibilities of tomorrow.
“We do live events across the UK, and we have discussions with scientists, engineers, roboticists, philosophers, and most importantly, artists,” he said. “When it comes to having these sorts of discussions, I always find that artists are some of the best people to ask about how to solve those human issues.”
The podcast is an extension of his mission to communicate complex scientific and technological developments to the public.
“It’s a project about who has the leading ideas about how we’re going to think about the future, and how we bring them to the fore so we can explore the multitude of possibilities that we may have for the future,” Mason said.
He has interviewed hundreds of influential thinkers about artificial intelligence, human enhancement, space travel, and virtual reality, using these conversations to spark public curiosity about how innovation will reshape society. This blend of outreach and research gives him a distinctive vantage point when assessing public reactions to new technology.
Shaping the Road Ahead
Global cultural contrasts in attitudes toward robots also shape Mason’s work. Drawing on his experience in Asia, he highlighted a striking difference.
“In Japan, for example, they understand robots as having souls,” he said. “They’re very much part of the social sphere and the moral world. You look at some of the projects like Robo cafes in Japan and China—they are quite happy as a culture to have robots as part of their everyday lives.”
By contrast, he observed, Western societies tend to be more hesitant.
“I think that’s something we haven’t quite come to terms with in the UK and Britain and Europe, possibly because of how we think about what it means to be human,” Mason reflected. “We believe that consciousness is this byproduct of the human brain, whereas there’s a much more open approach in Asia that we don’t value in the West.”
Mason wants his robot project to challenge such assumptions and invite the public to reflect on what defines human uniqueness. By letting audiences meet a robotic version of himself, he hopes to study whether people empathize with it, recoil from it, or project human qualities onto it—and what those reactions reveal about their understanding of humanity.
Looking Forward
Mason also plans to expand the reach of his podcast. He envisions his projects not only as scientific inquiries but as cultural interventions that challenge people’s assumptions about humanity’s relationship with machines.
The next phase of his work will involve integrating facial actuators and voice systems into the robot to make it capable of naturalistic expression and conversation.
Mason aims to debut the prototype at a series of public exhibitions across the UK, where attendees can engage directly with the machine and provide feedback on their emotional reactions. This data will feed into his PhD research on public perception of humanoid robots, allowing him to assess how design elements influence trust, curiosity, or discomfort.
As Mason’s “Luke Robots Mason” takes shape, his endeavor underscores the growing convergence of technology, philosophy, and art in understanding what it means to be human in an era of intelligent machines.