The book is actually based on existing technologies, and was written by a professor of robots with some expertise in what currently passes for "AI".

The book actually has some practical insights into dealing with the natural hard-to-fix flaws in real robots in daily life.

That said, the book is clearly meant as a work of humor.

Or it was clear, when it was first published, anyway. Some of the overblown "they will inevitably send robots to kill us" stuff is less obviously satire, today.