Sex robots: The end of empathy and love or a force for good?

What is a robot? "A commercial good with a face," Kathleen Richardson, professor of ethics and culture of robots and AI at De Montfort University, explains to me, exasperated. "That’s really what it is. It’s made. It’s manufactured. It’s a product with a face." The idea that one can engage in a significant relationship with a robot – a relationship that requires "intimacy, trust, commitment, a mutual understanding" – is unrealisable, she contends. But it’s more than that. It’s downright dangerous, and it puts the whole concept of humanity in precarity, even jeopardy.

Let’s rewind a little. Sex robots, or sexbots as they’ve come to be known, are on the rise. There’s been a spate of TV shows that feature humanoid robots partaking in ostensibly human relationships; think Channel 4’s Humans and HBO’s critically acclaimed Westworld. The Stepford Wives – the novel (1972) and both films (1975 and 2004) – provide another example of the world’s fascination with humanoid fembots. The theme was even touched upon by the western world’s foremost sex symbol, Ryan Gosling, in the 2007 indie flick Lars and the Real Girl (although the object of Gosling’s affection was a less-than-realistic inflatable doll – the sexbot’s low-tech cousin).

But sexbots aren’t just screen fodder. They’re real, commercially available entities – anthropomorphic robots designed for the sexual gratification of humans, and they’re seeping into the mainstream. As with any new technology, they’re difficult to police; a lack of precedent makes understanding the long-term ramifications of these sex robots – not to mention the boundaries regarding conduct with them – more than a little fraught.