Journal of Future Robot Life

As artificial intelligence and technology advance, mobile robots capable of human intimacy are an inevitable consequence of this progress. Such a profound shift in sexual technology will herald both advantages and disadvantages for human intimate relationships, yet a paucity of research exists on the study of human-robot sexual relationships. We believe a greater understanding of attitudes toward sex robots will be of value as this emerging technology progresses from its currently incipient stage. We conducted an online survey exploring potential gender differences in attitudes and opinions about sex robots. Survey responses were analyzed by gender, age, relationship status, relationship satisfaction and sexual satisfaction. Results confirm our hypothesis, that men report more positive reactions to sex with robots than women. Indeed, on no question did women report more enthusiasm or optimism about the arrival of sex robots than did men. This conclusion begs the question, what will sex robots mean to the future of gender relations, and in particular, sexual relationships? Engaging one another in a dialogue about the increasing impact technology will have on human intimacy can only strengthen our efforts to mold its effect into a primarily positive one. In addition, it is our expectation that dialogue about these gender differences can assist psychologists, sex therapists, anthropologists, roboticists and couples in navigating technological advancements as they increasingly impact human intimacy. Indeed, this dialogue may be increasingly urgent as the sudden and severe impact of COVID-19 raises increasing safety concerns for human/human sexual relationships.

At “The International Congress on Love & Sex with Robots,” love and sex issues related to robots have been discussed. This discussion of robots has applications in nursing care and other. Love and sex are also important themes for narratives. We develop a system to generate stories, and consider a robot that tells stories as one of the applications of story generation. The purpose is to present a prototyping system that generates a new narrative expression based on the theme of “love and sex” by exchanging the concept of character in the input narrative expression with a new concept using our noun concept dictionary. We call the method of collecting nouns based on a certain theme and embedding them in a story to give the story a certain atmosphere “colouring.” This paper is to develop a prototype of a system that uses “colouring” to give a certain atmosphere to a story. We create a prototype and study the issues of the system. In the future, this prototype will serve as a stepping stone to a system that generates narratives based on specific themes. Eventually, we will study the use of robotic interactive psychotherapy, in which the robot converses with humans.

Sex robots may present an opportunity for a clinical management of individuals with paraphilic interests whose realisation would result in infliction of harm and/or legal consequences. We explored the prevalence of desire for sex robot experience in a control group and two target groups: one with paraphilic interests in minors, the other with interest in non-consent/violence. We expected both target groups to express a greater desire for sex robot experience than the control group, because sex robots would enable them to express paraphilic sexuality within legal limitations. We used data from two samples of male respondents. The control sample consisted of respondents from a representative online Czech sample (N = 806). Target groups of individuals with paraphilic interests consisted of 48 subjects sexually interested in minors and 57 subjects sexually interested in non-consent/violence against adults. Sex robot experience was desired by 18% of respondents in the control group, 37.5% of respondents in the group interested in minors, and 26% of respondents interested in non-consent/violence. This indicates that individuals with paraphilic interest in minors are slightly more open to the idea of sex robot experience. Studies exploring preferred features of sex robots and interest in their use in therapy are needed.

This paper introduces two anthropological case-studies; one in which the (female) author personally rented a male sexdoll to experience, and one in which an owner of a sexdoll was observed in her house, interacting with her doll. Through the first case, in which the anthropological methodology of participation and reflection is used, it is explored what sexdoll-intimacy could look like for a heterosexual female. The second case study uses observation and in-depth interviewing to explore what sexdolls may mean for an atypical group of users: asexuals. Both case-studies serve to reflect on the potential positive impacts for human intimacy, as well as on potential challenges or concerns. It discusses the wider theme of intimacy and human relationships, using sociological literature on former important technological innovations and their societal impact. One of the major conclusions of the paper is that instead of focusing on the ‘humanification’ of robots and sexdolls, as is currently happening in this field of innovation, it is useful for social scientists to turn the topic up side down: focusing on the potential of robotification of humans. This also means a shift from focusing on the (possible) future, to current societal dynamics. Another conclusion is that, while social-scientific scholars have been largely critical on sexdoll innovations; it is equally useful to take a more descriptive approach and experience, rather than moralize, what sexdolls may bring individuals and the larger society.

This article discusses the possibilities and potential issues with romantic and sexual interaction with virtual humans in virtual reality, using the design fiction Into thin air as a starting point for these reflections. Design fiction, a dramatized story by engineers/designers, speculate and critically reflect on advantages and risks with future technology. The primary purpose of the design fiction story utilized in this investigation is to highlight the advantages with air ship traveling (concerning climate impact), but since this was a concept that was difficult to dramatize, I choose to have that as a background setting, and instead foreground a bitter-sweet story about seeking love and sex in different virtual reality simulations during the time onboard an air ship. In most cases these attempts at sexual encounters are with actual women, but in one sequence I bring in the concept of virtual humans.

The user wears a full-body haptic feedback suit, so he/she can see, hear and feel the virtual agent. In the design fiction and in this article, I speculate that such virtual agents could be created by including three agents to choose between (automatically generated by algorithms); A) a generic blend of celebrities, B) a recreation of the user’s high school love interest, and C) a recreation of a woman the user just had flirted with.

In this article I compare this design fiction scenario with real-life VR applications, trying to explore the feasibility of different virtual human scenarios. Virtual reality developers have so far avoided sexual or romantic content in their experiences, possibly to a large extent because the major distribution platform – Oculus – is controlled by Facebook. Facebook have quite strict regulations concerning what is deemed as appropriate as content, and thus curates the available experiences quite strictly. Some experiences subtly hint at romantic encounters, such as the dating simulators Falling in love and Focus on you. I argue that these two experiences are highly limited and linear. In order to create a more complex and convincing romantic/sexual encounter, the virtual agents would need to be driven by a dialog system and AI. One attempt in that direction is the smartphone app Replika, a chat and voice based virtual agent that tries to give the impression of a caring friend (who can venture into text based sexual encounters).

The conclusion is that it seems likely that the VR dating simulations will gradually evolve and become more convincing, primarily depending on Facebook’s control over the market, and the slow but steady progress in dialog systems. The possibility to physically/virtually interact with the beloved virtual agents and have satisfying intercourse seems possible, but not something to expect in the near future.

Link to the design fiction: https://chalmersuniversity.box.com/s/xmo1dkihicfxgo6qo4zb2onez45m49fl

As a result of its accelerated evolution in the early 21^st Century, technology has already extended far beyond mere instrumental status. In the not too distant future we can expect technology to move towards a new dimension in terms of fusing with human nature; most notably in the field of intimacy towards what are known as erobots (i.e., sexbots, augmented erotic characters, erotic chatbots, erotic avatars, etc.). Given that these erobots have every chance to become part of a future eroticism, this places erobots beyond the onto-metaphysical grounding of the Western tradition regarding objects. This is an aspect that attracts the dissolution of the anthropocentric legacy of Western metaphysics, within the parameters of OOO, by showing that, in this paradigm, so-called human uniqueness is suffering an ontological twist. To show this I am investigating, the scenario that involves the relationship between a sexbot and a human, alongside of that between two sexbots, within the limits of OOO. Consequently, I am addressing the issue of how a sexbot relates to both a human agent and to another sexbot. I am also analyzing the perspective in which a future presence of erobots in the intimate life of the individual will twist the traditional image of eroticism in Western culture. This perspective is opening a deconstructing process with regard to human exceptionalism – analyzed within the limits of the ‘deterritorialization’ of eroticism – from the traditional structures of Western metaphysical heritage. Such deterritorialization emphasizes the paradigm shift in which eroticism is leaving the familiar terrain of the metaphysics of presence and the fixed structures of societies’ ‘strata’. Thus, following the philosophical thinking of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, the ‘reterritorialization’ of eroticism – in the fluid, transversal and rhizomatic network of technology – is an ongoing, ever-changing process, taking place in the immanent sphere of techno-eroticism’s ‘plane of consistency’.

This article explores the dynamic and the implications for the legal response to sex robots, using the United States legal system as a case study. This article does not try to cover all legal aspects of sex with robots, but rather focuses on likely legal strategies to prohibit or restrict sex robots. The American legal system has traditionally followed a two-step approach to non-traditional sexual practices, typified by an initial effort to prohibit such practices to protect “public morality,” followed by a subsequent period of relaxation and non-enforcement. This pattern will likely apply to sex robots, where some state legislatures will likely seek to ban sex robots outright, but may encounter Constitutional obstacles and the unwillingness of law enforcement to expend significant resources enforcing against such “victimless crimes.” More focused prohibitions that go beyond public morality arguments and seek to protect arguably legitimate interests will have greater salience. Examples include prohibitions on child sex robots that may be used to promote pedophilia, the recognition of human-robot marriage that could weaken the unique human bonds that sanctify marriage, and sex robot brothels that could debase and damage neighborhoods. However, even these more legitimate goals in restricting certain applications of sex robots are likely to encounter legal obstacles under U.S. constitutional law, and thus likely follow the two-step dynamic seen for other non-traditional sexual practices of initial attempts at legal prohibition followed by relaxation of enforcement and implicit acceptance.