In Star Trek, why does the computer sound so mechanical and emotionless when the holodeck can create characters who can converse indistinguishably from humans? In Voyager, the Doctor himself is as realistic as it gets, complete with a receding hairline and a snarky attitude. Why does Data have yellow skin? Why is he apparently (though not consistently) unable to use contractions... except when mimicking the speaking style of Sherlock Holmes? Of course, these sci-fi characters are all fictional, and the differences between their styles exist because the writers thought they would sound better on screen. Star Trek predicted the use of AI assistants long before they existed (and the iPad, for that matter). But a plot device by the writers is actually an excellent UX design feature for our real-world AI assistants. If the ship's computer were emotional and designed just like Gemini or Copilot, high-stakes commands such as "set auto destruct" would be much harder.…