Stop sniggering … the rise of the sex robot is a reality

Experts say the lifelike machines could be used for sexual therapy or as companions for the lonely

SEX robots could soon be used to keep the elderly company in care homes and help couples enjoy long-distance relationships, the Foundation for Responsible Robotics (FRR) has said. There are currently four manufacturers making lifelike robotic dolls worldwide, but experts predict that in coming decades they could become widespread, used not just as a fetish, but for sexual therapy and as companions for lonely, disabled or older people.

Noel Sharkey, the emeritus professor of robotics and artificial intelligence at the University of Sheffield, and co-founder of the FRR, said it was time for the Government and the public to decide whether to regulate pleasure-bots. “I can tell you that robots are certainly coming,” he said at the launch of the consultation report in central London.

“The concern is that this is going on and nobody is talking about it. People snigger about them, but they are actually shipping quite a lot and we are going to see them a lot more.

“They are being proposed for the elderly in care homes, which I think is controversial.

“If you have severe Alzheimer’s you can’t really tell the difference. We need to think about, as a society, what we want to do about it.” The report found that up to two thirds of men and about 30 per cent of women were in favour of using sex robots, which currently cost between £4,000 and £12,000 and can be customised by sex, height, hair colour, eye colour and even personality.

Companies are also starting to incorporate artificial intelligence so robots can communicate and respond to human emotions.

Doll brothels already operate in South Korea, Japan and Spain, while the first robotic oral sex coffee shop opened in Paddington, west London, last year.

The report said that as robotics, telecommunications and virtual reality merged, a sex doll could be created which was a silicon replica of a longdistance partner, so that couples could have virtual sex and even speak to each other through the doll’s mouth.

But the authors warned that the march of sex robots raised serious moral and ethical questions which needed to be addressed.

They warned that users could become socially isolated or even addicted to the machines which could never replace real human contact.

“If people bond with robots it’s very worrying. You are loving an artefact that can’t love you back, and the best they can do is fake it,” said Prof Sharkey.

The authors said it may be necessary to criminalise “robotic rape” and to build in “handled roughly” sensors to prevent users developing violent sexual tendencies. And they called for a complete ban on child sex dolls.