Wider debate around sex robots encouraged

Campaign calls for ban on sex robots

Leading academics in robot ethics have warned that their creation will only increase the objectification of women and children, further dehumanising those who are abused for sex.

The warning comes as artificial intelligence approaches a point where it could be used in robots designed solely to satisfy sexual desires. But such robots, campaigners argue, should not exist.

“The development of sex robots and the ideas to support their production show the immense horrors still present in the world of prostitution,” read a statement on the Campaign Against Sex Robots website. The authors of the campaign argued that sex robots would further increase the perceived “inferiority of women and children” and continue to justify their use as “sex objects”.

The campaign, led by Kathleen Richardson, a senior research fellow in the ethics of robotics at De Montfort University in Leicester and Erik Brilling, an associate senior lecturer in informatics from the University of Skövde in Sweden, hopes to encourage a wider debate around the development of sex robots and their potential implications for society.

 The development of “ethical technologies” that reflect the human principles of dignity, mutuality and freedom are critical, the campaign argues. To this end the campaign has called on scientists and roboticists to refuse to help with the development of sex bots, by withholding code, hardware and ideas.

The issue of human-robot sexual relations has made both the big and small screen this year. The AMD and Channel 4 co-production Humans and Alex Garland’s Ex Machina both explored the potential dangers.

Source: Wired

PL – Here are more blog posts with different perspectives on the topic: Sex dolls with artificial intelligence to ease your loneliness?
Human-robot: A new kind of Love?
SIRI-OUSLY: Sex Robots are actually going to be good for humanity

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