OPINION
Monday , September 28, 2015 11
Public vs Private
The ethics of regulating robot sex
shannon corregan › contributor
T
he summer of 2015 has been a monumental season for robots. Just this July, a
robotics company called Softbank released
a humanoid robot that it claims is able to
sense users’ emotions. Even more impressive, scientists at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New
York developed a robot that broke new ground in
demonstrating self-awareness. The robot’s artificial
intelligence was able to pass a self-awareness test
that previously only humans had been able to beat.
While the broader ramifications of this achievement
have yet to be ascertained, researchers claim that at
the very least, this was a “mathematically verifiable
awareness of self” by non-human intelligence.
With a new era of artificial intelligence and
robotic responsiveness just around the corner, robot
ethicists at de Montfort University in Leicester,
England are attempting to draw attention to some of
its potential dangers – particularly when it comes to
robots that are being sold for sex use.
Humanoid sex toys are nothing new in our society, but a company called True Companions is currently producing what it advertises as the “world’s
first sex robot.” The Roxxxy Doll is a female humanoid robot,