02 LEARN TO LOVE ROBOTS
Computer scientist KATE DEVLIN researches the ways in which sex, gender and sexuality could be incorporated into companion robots, and what those developments mean for society. She chats to HELEN GLENNY about her new book
What was your motivation for writing the book?
I was curious to see how we got to the point where we are actually starting to see the manufacture and delivery of the first sex robots. Where has this idea of the artificial partner come from, and what will it mean for society? Who benefits, and who might suffer?
How long have sex robots been around for?
Not long – the first commercially developed one is about to be shipped out to customers. But the idea has been around for millennia. The very first story was about a woman in Greece making a model in bronze of her husband who died in battle.
What do modern ones look like?
The only part of one that is robotic is its head. They have an animatronic head, but the body is completely stationary from the neck down. It’s essentially a wellmade, high-end doll with an AI personality. You can have conversations with it, and it can smile and look at you and turns its head.
What are the main benefits?
There are people out there who may be lonely, and robots could be a way of giving those people someone they can love and who will give the appearance of loving them back. For pleasure purposes, a robot can be someone they can have as a sexual partner.
And the drawbacks?
These robots have hyperfemale figures and are usually white with blonde hair, which I think entrenches stereotypes and adds to concerns around body image. There are a lot of race issues in there as well. Also, what happens if people treat these robots badly? Does that spill into real life? What happens if someone makes a child-like version? What happens with data privacy and security? Anything that’s connected to the internet is hackable. What happens if all your sexual secrets are stolen?
What about issues around consent?
We don’t need to ask consent from a robot right now, because they aren’t sentient, and may never be sentient, but perhaps we should be modelling consent as a reflection of what we want in society. In fact, one of the manufacturers is building consent into his robot, so you have to ‘woo’ her.
Where do you think this industry is headed?
Right now, I think this is an incredibly niche market; there aren’t many being made. I think there’s much more scope for creating intimate technologies that move away from the human form and into more abstract forms and immersive experiences. In 2016 and 2017 we ran a hackathon where people prototyped technology for intimacy that isn’t based around the human form. We had people who made tentacle-like structures out of silicone, and these tentacles would squeeze a body part – you could put it on your body and it would hug you. We had someone else create a shawl that had sensors in it, so in virtual reality the sensors would trigger in response to your environment. Maybe that’s the way this technology is headed.
The headlines we see about sex robots tend to be doom-laden, about mass panic and morality. This isn’t reflecting the reality, which is that they exist in such small numbers that they won’t impact our everyday lives. That said, they’re a fascinating way to raise questions about how we behave and form relationships.