So long, banana-condom demos: Sex and drug education could soon come from chatbots

“Is it ok to get drunk while I’m high on ecstasy?” “How can I give oral sex without getting herpes?” Few teenagers would ask mom or dad these questions—even though their life could quite literally depend on it.

Talking to a chatbot is a different story. They never raise an eyebrow. They will never spill the beans to your parents. They have no opinion on your sex life or drug use. But that doesn’t mean they can’t take care of you.

Bots can be used as more than automated middlemen in business transactions: They can meet needs for emotional human intervention when there aren’t enough humans who are willing or able to go around.

In fact, there are times when the emotional support of a bot may even be preferable to that of a human.

In 2016, AI tech startup X2AI built a psychotherapy bot capable of adjusting its responses based on the emotional state of its patients. The bot, Karim, is designed to help grief- and PTSD-stricken Syrian refugees, for whom the demand (and price) of therapy vastly overwhelms the supply of qualified therapists.

From X2AI test runs using the bot with Syrians, they noticed that technologies like Karim offer something humans cannot:

For those in need of counseling but concerned with the social stigma of seeking help, a bot can be comfortingly objective and non-judgmental.

Bzz is a Dutch chatbot created precisely to answer questions about drugs and sex. When surveyed teens were asked to compare Bzz to finding answers online or calling a hotline, Bzz won. Teens could get their answers faster with Bzz than searching on their own, and they saw their conversations with the bot as more confidential because no human was involved and no tell-tale evidence was left in a search history.

Because chatbots can efficiently gain trust and convince people to confide personal and illicit information in them, the ethical obligations of such bots are critical, but still ambiguous.

Source: Quartz

 

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Is an Affair in Virtual Reality Still Cheating?

virtual reality sexI hadn’t touched another woman in an intimate way since before getting married six years ago. Then, in the most peculiar circumstances, I was doing it. I was caressing a young woman’s hands. I remember thinking as I was doing it: I don’t even know this person’s name.

After 30 seconds, the experience became too much and I stopped. I ripped off my Oculus Rift headset and stood up from the chair I was sitting on, stunned. It was a powerful experience, and I left convinced that virtual reality was not only the future of sex, but also the future of infidelity.

Whatever happens, the old rules of fidelity are bound to change dramatically. Not because people are more open or closed-minded, but because evolving technology is about the force the issues into our brains with tantalizing 1s and 0s.

Source: Motherboard

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Owners of first humanoid robot sign agreement not to have sex with it

Pepper agreement

© Yuya Shino / Reuters

A Japanese-based company Softbank, which has created Pepper the robot, has forced customers to sign a document forbidding its owners from using the humanoid for sexual purposes, as well as creating sexy apps.

Even after having paid nearly $2,000 US dollars for the robot, users may have to return Pepper to its makers should they get too personal with the emotional artificial being. 

The clause reads that Pepper must not be used “for sexual activity and actions for the purpose of indecent acts, or acts for the purpose of meeting and dating and making acquaintance of the opposite sex.

Currently Pepper is available for purchase for Japanese residents only and they must be older than 20.

Source: rt.com

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Sex Dolls with Artificial Intelligence to Ease Your Loneliness?

realbotix-sex-dolls-artificial-intelligenceRobotic sex dolls that talk back, flirt and interact with the customer

Abyss Creations, the company beyond Realdoll (life-sized, silicone sex dolls), wants to start making robotic sex dolls that talk back, flirt and interact with the customer. The project, called Realbotix, is the company’s first venture into the world of artificial intelligence. It involves an AI-powered animatronic head that can be fitted onto preexisting doll bodies, a pocket-pet doll accessible through an app and a version of the doll in virtual reality.

Does interactivity make for a better sex doll?

We really look at this as much more than being just a sex doll. We’re looking at all the ways this could be used as a companion. The intimacy part of it is obviously very interesting, and a lot of people gravitate toward it. But the implications of what it could do is so much bigger.

For some of our customers, just having the dolls in their house makes them feel not as lonely as they did before. There are people out there that have dolls that they choose to make a permanent part of their being. They don’t want a real relationship with all the responsibility that comes along with it. Usually, for those kinds of people, it’s just an act of time. They’re going through a loss of a loved one or a divorce, and this is a diversion for them to take the edge off of the loneliness. Our hope is that it can be a device to help people get through some of those times.

Source: psfk

PL – Here are more blog posts with different perspectives on the topic: Wider debate around sex robots encouraged.
Human-robot: A new kind of Love?
SIRI-OUSLY: Sex Robots are actually going to be good for humanity

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Human-robot: A new kind of love?

Intimate artificial intelligence

If a robot could be built to be as sensitive and caring as humans can be, would you want one? They could enter our lives so totally that we might even fall in love with them.

It’s time to think about robots: what they can do for us and what they might mean to us before we get in too deep.

BBC new kind of love

Today the idea of someone loving a robot may seem strange or even utterly wrong. Yet over history, opinions of what are morally acceptable actions and what are not have changed constantly. There may be no reason to think our attitude to loving an artificial intelligence will be any different.

Source: BBC

PL – Here are more blog posts with different perspectives on the topic: Wider debate around sex robots encouraged.
Sex Dolls with Artificial Intelligence to Ease Your
Loneliness?
SIRI-OUSLY: Sex Robots are actually going to be good for humanity 

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