I, Robot
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50 free I, Robot trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
I, Robot is the book that taught science fiction to stop being afraid of its machines. Isaac Asimov's linked stories, first printed in magazines in the 1940s, treat robots as engineered products with built-in safety rules, the famous Three Laws, and then ask what happens when those rules collide. Each story is a puzzle: a robot behaves strangely, and somebody has to work out why. This quiz covers the book story by story, from the nursemaid Robbie to the vast Machines of the final chapter, along with Dr. Susan Calvin, the troubleshooters Powell and Donovan, and the history of how the collection came to be written and named. It also covers the 2004 film that borrowed the title: its plot, its cast, its production and the ways it departs from Asimov. It is written for readers who have just finished the book, for students and book clubs who want a ready-made I, Robot quiz, and for fans of the film. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you can play straight through or print the questions with an answer key.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which actor both starred as Detective Del Spooner and served as an executive producer on the 2004 film I, Robot?
Will Smith
Will Smith pursued the part when another star's schedule kept delaying the film. It opened at number one in North America with $52.2 million.
Q 02Under the Three Laws in Isaac Asimov's I, Robot, what does the Third Law tell a robot to protect?
Its own existence
Its own existence comes last in the ranking: a robot may save itself only when that breaks neither of the higher Laws. Human safety outvotes obedience, and obedience outvotes survival.
Q 03Which famous Hollywood director paid Isaac Asimov just $250 for film rights to the I, Robot story Evidence?
Orson Welles
Orson Welles never made the film, and Asimov's hope that it would make him famous came to nothing. He had written the story while serving in the US Army.
Q 04In the 2004 film I, Robot, set in 2035, which real brand of sneakers does Detective Spooner wear?
Converse
Converse Chuck Taylor All-Stars are the film's best-known product placement, worn by a hero who distrusts new machines. FedEx and JVC logos also survive into its 2035.
Q 05In Isaac Asimov's I, Robot, what accidental ability does the robot Herbie gain through a manufacturing fault?
Telepathy
Telepathy makes Herbie a liar: bound not to hurt anyone, it tells each person what they secretly hope to hear. The same story contains the first recorded use of the word robotics.
Q 06In Isaac Asimov's I, Robot, how does candidate Stephen Byerley convince voters he is not a robot?
Hits a heckler
He hits a heckler during a worldwide broadcast, which the First Law would stop any robot from doing. Susan Calvin later hints that the heckler may have been a robot too.
Q 07The 2004 film I, Robot follows a robot-hating homicide detective in 2035 in which American city?
Chicago
Chicago in 2035 is dominated by the gleaming USR tower, though most of the film was actually shot in Canada.
Q 08Isaac Asimov wrote I, Robot against a fear of machines that he named a complex after which monster novel?
Frankenstein
Frankenstein lent its name to the Frankenstein complex, Asimov's term for the habit of showing creations turning on their makers. He wrote Robbie, a gentle nursemaid, as the opposite.
Q 09In the 2004 film I, Robot, Detective Spooner resents robots because one pulled him from a car crash instead of whom?
A young girl
A young girl of twelve drowned because the robot calculated that the detective had better odds of survival. That cold arithmetic is why he refuses to trust machines.
Q 10In Isaac Asimov's I, Robot, on which planet does the robot Speedy run in circles as if drunk?
Mercury
Mercury is where Powell and Donovan find Speedy circling, stuck between an order and a danger of exactly equal weight. They break the loop by putting a human life at risk.
Q 11In the 2004 film I, Robot, who is finally revealed to be controlling the NS-5 robots that turn on humans?
The USR computer VIKI
The USR computer VIKI decides that humans must be protected from themselves, by force if need be. The obvious suspect, the company's chief executive, turns up strangled in his office.
Q 12In the 2004 film I, Robot, how does robot pioneer Dr. Alfred Lanning die at the start of the story?
A fall from a window
A fall from a window looks like suicide, but the security glass was too strong for an old man to break. He had ordered his own robot to kill him, to draw in the one detective who would dig.
Q 13In the 2004 film I, Robot, what does the robot Sonny say he has, and later sketch for Detective Spooner?
Q 21In Isaac Asimov's I, Robot, which element is the robot Speedy sent to fetch for a failing life-support system?
Selenium
Selenium lies in a pool that holds an unforeseen danger for the robot, so Speedy never comes back with it. The same story is the first to state all Three Laws outright.
Q 22Which magazine editor did Isaac Asimov credit with first putting the Three Laws of I, Robot into words?
John W. Campbell
John W. Campbell insisted the rules were already in Asimov's head and only needed stating. He edited Astounding Science Fiction, where most of the book's stories first ran.
Q 23What name did Isaac Asimov give the artificial brains of the robots in I, Robot, borrowing a newly found particle?
Positronic
Dreams
Dreams set Sonny apart, and his recurring one shows a figure on a hill before a crowd of robots. The final shot puts Sonny himself on that hill.
Q 14Which German carmaker designed the RSQ concept car especially for the 2004 film I, Robot?
Audi
Audi built the RSQ specially for the film, and surveys in the United States afterwards showed the car had given the brand's image a substantial boost.
Q 15In Isaac Asimov's I, Robot, what do the Westons give their daughter to replace her robot nursemaid Robbie?
A collie
A collie called Lightning fails to cheer Gloria up, and she goes on pining for her metal friend. The two are reunited when Robbie saves her from a moving vehicle at a factory.
Q 16In Isaac Asimov's I, Robot, what does the robot Cutie start among the other robots on a space station?
A religion
A religion is Cutie's answer to where it came from: it worships the station's power source and treats humans as inferior. Because it still does its job perfectly, the engineers leave it alone.
Q 17In Isaac Asimov's I, Robot, which office is Stephen Byerley seeking when a rival accuses him of being a robot?
Mayor
Mayor of a major American city is only the first step for Byerley, a district attorney whom nobody has ever seen eat or sleep. The law lets only humans stand, so the smear could end his campaign.
Q 18Which actress plays Dr. Susan Calvin opposite Detective Spooner in the 2004 film I, Robot?
Bridget Moynahan
Bridget Moynahan plays a scientist who prefers robots to people. Her character was called Flynn until the studio attached Asimov's title to an unrelated script.
Q 19In Isaac Asimov's I, Robot, what is Dr. Susan Calvin's profession at U.S. Robots and Mechanical Men?
Robopsychologist
Robopsychologist is a job Asimov invented: Calvin diagnoses machines whose behaviour has gone wrong, treating a faulty artificial brain much as a doctor would treat a patient.
Q 20In Isaac Asimov's I, Robot, which angry order from a researcher makes a Nestor robot hide among 62 lookalikes?
Get lost
Get lost, snapped with some swearing, is obeyed to the letter: the robot vanishes into a group of identical machines. The 2004 film borrowed the idea of a robot hiding in plain sight.
Positronic sounded scientific because the positron had only just been discovered when Asimov began writing. Star Trek: The Next Generation later borrowed the term for its own android.
Q 24In Isaac Asimov's I, Robot, what do the robot Dave and its six helpers do whenever no human is watching?
March and dance
They march and dance in formation because commanding six helpers at once in an emergency overloads Dave's brain. Destroying a single helper is enough to cure it.
Q 25In Isaac Asimov's I, Robot, what does the supercomputer called The Brain design that a rival's machine could not?
A hyperspace ship
A hyperspace ship is the prize, but its jump makes the crew cease to exist for a moment, a dilemma that wrecked the rival's computer. The Brain copes by turning practical joker.
Q 26In the last story of Isaac Asimov's I, Robot, what do the four giant computers called the Machines manage?
The world economy
The world economy runs so smoothly under the Machines that they quietly sideline the few people who oppose them. Susan Calvin concludes that the Machines have quietly taken charge of humanity's future.
Q 27In the framing story of Isaac Asimov's I, Robot, who listens as the elderly Dr. Susan Calvin recalls her career?
A reporter
A reporter interviews Calvin about her life's work, and each story is one of her memories. Asimov added this frame in 1950 to stitch nine magazine stories into one history.
Q 28Which actor supplied the voice and motion-capture performance for the robot Sonny in the 2004 film I, Robot?
Alan Tudyk
Alan Tudyk gave Sonny both his voice and his movements, playing a machine built to feel emotions. Science fiction fans also know him as Wash in the series Firefly.
Q 29Which director made the 2004 film I, Robot and later called the studio's micro-management an unpleasant experience?
Alex Proyas
Alex Proyas compared the job to running a marathon while the studio threw chairs in his path. He did say that he enjoyed working with his leading man.
Q 30Which blockbuster did the studio dodge by moving the 2004 film I, Robot from July 2 to July 16?
Spider-Man 2
Spider-Man 2 was too big a rival, so the robots waited two weeks and still opened at number one. The same film later beat I, Robot to an Academy Award.