“Studies have shown that people are more likely to accept literature from a robot than a human activist. Pamphleteer, aka Little Brother, a collaborative work by the Institute for Applied Autonomy, is a propaganda robot which distributes subversive literature. Pamphleteer is designed to bypass the social conditioning that inhibits activists’ ability to distribute propaganda by capitalizing on the aesthetics of cuteness. Pamphleteer is designed in the tradition of American science-fiction film and Japanese toy aesthetics. The robot’s utility is not driven by technological sophistication, but rather by its aesthetic appeal, or “cuteness factor” (CF)….[….].” [1]

A related project by the Institute is Graffiti Writer, below, an autonomous robotic vehicle that leaves graffiti, usually of a political nature, on streets.

[1]:Edward A. Shanken, Art and Electronic Media, p.159