Partial Image Sourced from: Reuters/Bobby Yip

What if you woke up one morning and discovered via mainstream media news that some random dude in Hong Kong had built a robot that looks exactly like you?

Source: giphy

And you learned that this doppelganger robot had been programmed with a canned response, “Hehe, thank you” to this dude’s comment, “You’re so pretty.” What then? What if this dude starting sleeping with this very same robot that looks identical to you? How would you feel as you closed your eyes at night, knowing that your robotic twin might be lying next some dude who was getting all tingly down there? Where does one’s rights enter into this scenario? Don’t we have a copyright on our personal identities? Apparently, there doesn’t exist any law preventing someone from creating a robotic version of you for personal use. I think this needs to change.

People in the past had to confront almost the same legal issues once wax figures were able to be built as exact replicas of real people.

Image Source of a wax Justin Timberlake: Pixabay

This comes via The Verge which describes a passage that explores the laws surrounding wax replicas from 1894:

“From the result in the Court below of the Monson wax figure case, it would appear that aman has a legal right to prevent the multiplication of copies of himself. In other words, a man has a copyright in his own effigy, and, as the owner of any other copyright, the exclusive right of multiplying copies of himself — in wax. We are not quite sure that the case was decided on this point, but it ought to have been. There was a little too much talk about the Chamber of Horrors and libel and actionable wrong. The true reason of the decision must be that, as we put it, it is breach of man’s copyright of himself. True, he is not the author of himself, but may be said to obtain a copyright in himself by inheritance. At any rate, on whatever ground granted, it appears to us only right that aman should be able to stop the exhibition of his counterfeit self.” - Law Notes via The Verge

It's clear that Ricky Ma, who created the ScarJo robot, never got permission from Scarlet Johansson to create a robot replica of her.

However, it’s not clear whether this dude is sleeping with his ScarJo robot, but the reason he built it is pretty freaking obvious. Apparently, it’s not a sexbot, but rather a companion robot of sorts. Well, we actually have no idea but he publicly states that his robot is not a sexbot. He’s seeking investors to mass produce his robots, but if they look like the one he built, he could be facing a big lawsuit from the Johansson camp.

The story was first reported by the Mirror.

So, who is this dude anyway?

Ricky Ma is a graphic and product designer who had no knowledge of electromechanics, coding or robotics. It took him about a year and half to complete his robot and he did it by himself. He admitted that it was quite difficult to build all the parts from scratch. Ma said, “During this process, a lot of people would say things like, ‘Are you stupid? This takes a lot of money. Do you even know how to do it? It’s really hard.'”

According to Reuters photojournalist, Bobby Yip, who broke the story, “In response to the compliment, ‘Mark 1, you are so beautiful,’ its brows and the muscles around its eyes relax, and the corners of its lips lift, creating a natural-seeming smile and it says, ‘Hehe, thank you.'” -Rueters, Bobby Yip

Interestingly, he named the Scarlett Johannson doppelganger robot, Mark 1. He also told the Reuters journalist that few in his city understood his mission to build a robot. Ma admitted that he has been obsessed with building a robot since his childhood. He said he loved animation and cartoons as a child and never quite stopped loving them.

Image Source: Pixabay

The humanoid robot’s silicone skin covers a 3D printed skeleton and 70% of it was created using 3D printing technology. Mark 1 responds to a set of a programmed verbal commands. The robot can perform simple movements with its arms and legs, turn its head and bow as well. Additionally, Mark 1 can create highly detailed facial expressions.

Ma said that building Mark 1 was a dream come true. In his own words, “If I realize my dream, I will have no regrets in life.”

What’s really strange about this is the fact that Ricky refuses to even mention that his robot looks exactly like Scarlett Johansson. It’s almost as if he’s living in some weird denial of reality, but the physical evidence is so painfully obvious. In many ways, Ricky Ma does remind me of a child, one who doesn’t think much about the repercussions of creating a robotic replica of a human being without their consent.

The Verge has expressed similar opinions about this situation:

“There was actually a case in 1992 where a company made an ad with a robot Vanna White and got sued by the human Vanna White. But that was an advertising thing. I don’t know if you can stop people from building a robot replica of you for personal use. It kind of seems like you should, though, because this is really unsettling.
I think this also came up with the buffybot on Buffy, and the lesson was not to make robot replicas of people without their explicit consent.” -The Verge

It’s pretty clear that there needs to be some clear laws created to protect individual people’s identity from being copied and manufactured in robotic form. Ricky Ma’s ScarJo robot, I think has sped up the process of humans rethinking the laws surrounding robot replicas. It's pretty clear that some new laws need to be put in place to protect identity rights regarding robot replicas. We better do this soon before Hanson Robotics mates with both DeepMind and Boston Dynamics and spawns something realistic out of Westworld.

I originally wrote about the ScarJo robot for Interesting Engineering here. However, I have rewritten this article considerably and added the information about wax figures, etc.