Can 'Sex Robots' Replace Relationships With Human Beings?

Experts disagree on whether robots are capable of developing relationships with humans, and whether "sex bots" will become normal.

Humans should be "very careful" about developing intimate relationships with robots, experts have warned.

The Human Choice and Computers Conference, held on Wednesday, will study the question of technology and intimacy and examine whether humans could ever fall in love with a robot.

Dr Kathleen Richardson, a senior research fellow in the ethics of robotics at De Montfort University, tells Sky News: The biggest problem with it is that the idea that human needs, complex needs can be met by inanimate objects. By things, basically.

"One of the first impacts of something like sex robots would be to increase human isolation because once you try to tell people that they don't need other human beings any more, one of the consequences of that is more isolation."

Dr Richardson runs the Campaign Against Sex Robots.

She said: I created the campaign because I want people to really think about how we develop our technologies ethically.

"But machines, inanimate objects, can't do relations. You can't manufacture human intimate relations, and that's what we're all about."

Others disagree that machines will never be capable of relationships.

Ghislaine Boddington, who researches how humans interact with robots at the University of Greenwich, told Sky News: "I think that will occur in terms that we're developing through AI empathy - the empathy side of robotics and other areas of technology.

http://news.sky.com/story/can-sex-robots-replace-relationships-with-human-beings-10568346