Ethics of sex robots

[KevinM1]

From a pure technological standpoint, in the short term I’m far more concerned with things like:

Our ever increasing robotic workforce (I’m not convinced that the unemployment numbers reflect reality)
Ever more encroachment on our digital privacy (including but not limited to the government intentionally weakening encryption)
A lack of net neutrality
Our nation being incredibly slow to react to digital threats, including our aging/piecemeal digital infrastructure

That said, I see where you’re going with this.

I don’t think the problem is with sexbots per se, but rather the idea of disposable machines that look like us, and increasingly learn to behave like us.  It’s the kind of issue that sci-fi has dealt with for years (see: Philip K. Dick’s novel Do Robots Dream of Electric Sheep?, the Bladerunner movies, the first of which is based on that novel, the modern reboot of Battlestar Galactica, etc.).  

For me, it’s more of a concern about creating a new, artificial form of life and how we treat it.  I don’t think such a thing is possible for a fairly long while, if at all, but with AI being one of the next technological frontiers (and I mean true AI, not Siri-like parsers that identify keywords and spit back an answer based on simple predicates), it’s definitely something we should at least be aware of.

Aside: this is why sci-fi is awesome

Kevin, you've opened up a can of worms I don't think CL meant to. I think she's talking about advanced robots capable of providing a realistic enough sexual experience but not sentient. A sentient robot enslaved for that purpose or any other would definitely NOT be ethical. But we don't even know what it really means to be sentient. We have no idea how a sufficiently complex pattern of 1s and 0s can lead to, "I think, therefor I am." We are nowhere near that level of AI. I think CL is just talking about advanced appliances with as much sentience as a vacuum cleaner.

Well, she did mention AI. It's kinda hard to talk about what AI could mean without looking at the broader picture. Because people like Musk, Hawking, etc. aren't just worried about AI destroying us (which is a distinct possibility because context and nuance are hard enough for humans to grasp, let alone computers), but also, potentially the opposite, in that we eventually create an artificial sentience. What then?

I mean, yeah, glorified Real Dolls tied into some Siri-like parser isn't likely to change anything. For one, it's cost prohibitive. Second, the type of people who would seriously want one likely already have a cheaper, analog alternative. Third, like others have said, for those looking for a human touch, prostitution is another option. Given those factors, I don't see this robot, or anything as mundane as it, changing the status quo. But actual AI? That's when the needle moves.

It should be noted that the porn industry has almost always been a technological torchbearer. I'm going to laugh (but not be surprised) if Pornhub starts the AI apocalypse.