Category Archives: Media

Ethics expert has built ladybird-sparing vacuum cleaner

The possibility of sex robots over-exerting their human lovers to the point of collapse is just one of the ethical conundrums academics and society need to get their head round, a Swiss academic told a conference on sex robots today.

Oliver Bendel, of the University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Northwestern Switzerland, told the Love and Sex and Robots Conference at Goldsmith’s University, that the full range of machine ethics questions can – and should – be applied to sex robots.

Machine ethics sees machines – whether self-driving cars, chatbots, military drones, and presumably, your basic pleasure model – as potential moral agents in their own right, he said.

This raised the question of whether sex robots should have moral skills, in addition to their other more tangible skills, and “if so, which ones?” If they did, he continued, should these be simple “duty ethics” or should they also be mindful of the consequences of their decisions. Could robots enter into contracts?

Certain questions were particularly pertinent, he continued.

These included whether sex robots should be able to “entice” users. This is not just a question or applying some hair gel and a happy-go-lucky expression. Just imagine all the wiles of Google, or mobile games makers, applied to enticing you to keep pressing that button…or whatever.

Another key issue, he said, was whether robots should have the capability of “refusal” in “extreme” circumstance. Similarly, he continued, should robots be compelled to reveal they are, indeed, robots.

Other, arguably less elevated questions, included whether the sex robot should be “available” to a human at all times – something unlikely with most human lovers. At the same time, he asked, how should issues of shame on the part of the human partner be considered – and indeed where would the use of sex robots be considered unacceptable.

The proliferation of sex-robots – presumably able to incorporate data and feedback to constantly up their game – could have a physical effect on their human lovers, and beyond, he warned.

Human sexuality has certain “physical limits” he said, particularly in the male of the species. Robots, on the other hand, were potentially tireless. This could have a knock-on effect for a robot’s human partner, and indeed the partner’s partner. “If the machine over-exerts the human, it reduces the possibility of human sex,” Bendel warned.

Beyond that, Bendel said, what about the effect on those who are supplanted by dedicated machines, or those who are unable to afford such gadgets.

Ethicists and developers could go some way to answering these questions, he said, though ultimately the whole of society had to make a call. AI and robotics are both advancing at a rapid clip, the conference was told, and a number of speakers suggested it should not be left to the traditional porn industry to make these decisions for us.

Even the most dedicated researcher will need a break from grappling with them from time to time. Indeed, Bendel revealed that his most recent project was a ladybird-friendly vacuum cleaner. The device will clean your floors, but if it detects ladybirds and other little critters, it will stop and shoo them away to safety. However, he added, the team had included a kill button for arachnophobes. ®

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http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/12/19/love_robot_ethics/

You could soon have ultra-realistic sex with your favourite celebrity crush using virtual reality headsets, a technology expert said.

New equipment coming on to the market in the gaming industry could be utilised for the most realistic porn ever.

Prof Lynne Hall, from the University of Sunderland’s computing, engineering and technology department, said virtual reality headsets are becoming cheaper and more sophisticated.

She said: “If you want to be Kate Winslet standing in front of Leonardo DiCaprio, that can happen.

“Technology means we can have, quite quickly, something that is a fantastic form of sexual experience.

“The porn sector will do this if there’s a lot of money in it and there will be a lot of money in it.”

Prof Hall added: “Leisure sex is increasingly socially acceptable and pornography is very widely accessed.

“We live very small lives dominated by smartphones. This fits very well into that lifestyle.”

Prof Hall was speaking at the Love and Sex with Robots second international congress at Goldsmiths, University of London, as she presented a research paper called ‘sex with robots for love-free encounters’.

The paper explores the “technological advances for pornography and their relevance for such fantasy sex robots… through the integration of virtual reality, tele-dildonics, soft and wearable robots”.

It says robotics could “support love-free sexual pleasure… across a range of domains”.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/ultra-realistic-digital-sex-headsets-9491515

The sex robot industry is thriving, with some academics predicting that humans will be having more sex with robots that with each other by 2050.

But while many people find the idea of sex with a mechanical object abhorrent, academics are keen to find out who is most willing to embrace (literally) this new technology.

Speaking at the Love and Sex with Robots conference at Goldsmiths, University of London, Jessica M. Szczuka from the University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany took on the preconceptions of lonely men shacking up with cyber-lovers.

“I wanted to see what kind of characteristics influence the use of sex robots,” she told an audience at the conference.

“We react towards computers and machines as we do with human beings. This involves showing empathy and keeping an interpersonal distance with robots.”

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Szczuka’s research found that “anthropomorphic tendency” (ascribe human attributes to) was a positive predictor of intention to buy a sex robot and “negative attitude toward robots” was a negative predictor of intention to buy a sex robot.

Lovers separated by distance can see and talk to each other using the internet – but what about sharing a smooch?

The Kissenger is a gadget that’s been knocking around university research labs for the last few years and aims to let couple kiss each other through the internet.

It’s a brightly-coloured smartphone holster with an inviting plastic pad attached to the bottom. You lock lips with the pad and it transmits the sensation through to an identical holster and an identical pad that’s nestling your partner’s phone wherever that may be.

“Kissing is the most direct and universal expression of intimacy and affection,” explained Emma Yann Zhang, who worked on the prototype.

“It’s a way for us to bond and maintain intimacy in our relationships,” she told an audience at the Love and Sex with Robots congress as Goldsmiths, University of London.

“Also, it’s stress reducing; when we engage in this kind of intimate physical touch, we have a lower level of blood pressure.”

The Kissenger works with pressure sensors and actuators that record and transmit the your kiss to the receiving device, which recreates it for the person on the other end through an app that also features videocalling.

The creators admit that there’s still a way to go when it comes to accurately creating a long-distance makeout session. For starters, the pad isn’t mouth-shaped (although the actuators are lined like lips) and there’s no simulation for a tongue.

But the creators insist that it’s already helping to get people accustomed to machine-based touching. And, moreover, that it’s not being used in an overtly sexual way.

“Parents can also use Kissenger to give their children a kiss on the cheek when they are away at work,” say its creators.

Zhang explained that the next stage of the Kissenger is to build scent into the prototype. So you can get the authentic smell of the person you want to kiss.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/tech/send-kiss-through-internet-remarkable-9485904

You may think that what goes on between you and your sex robot in the privacy of your own home is nobody’s business but your own.

But experts have warned that – like fitness trackers and smart TVs – many of these futuristic sex toys will record and store personal data about how people use and store them.

Unless questions are asked about how and why this data is being used, things could go badly wrong, according to Dr Kate Devlin, a senior lecturer in the Department of Computing at Goldsmiths, University of London.

“Right now my big concern is about data,” explained Dr Kate Devlin, during a keynote session at the Second International Congress on Love and Sex with Robots in London this week.

“We tick the box of the terms and conditions without checking them.”

Dr. Devlin cited the case of Standard Innovation, a US-based tech company that makes internet-connected sex toys under the We-Vibe branding, which is currently being sued.

The company is being accused of recording incredibly personal data – including things like vaginal temperature and preferred intensity setting – without the user’s consent.

The woman’s lawyer, Eve-Lynn Rapp, said: “This is one of the more incredible invasions of privacy we’ve ever dealt with.”

“We do collect certain limited data to help us improve our products and for diagnostic purposes,” Standard Innovation said in a .

“As a matter of practice, we use this data in an aggregate, non-identifiable form.”

Dr Devlin said that, in some cases, collecting personal data can be useful.

“For example, if it is fed back into the product to make it better,” she says, highlighting a thermometer gadget called Daysy that offers menstrual cycle tracking.

User feedback has also been proven to improve the product’s accuracy.

“But do we want people to know when we have sex and how we have sex?” she asked.

The argument is that if data collection is not monitored it could very easily turn into a slippery slope of personal data collection which is then open to hackers.

Despite raising concerns about both the data collection and the objectification of women that are by-products of sex robots, Dr Devlin argues that they are a positive development.

“There are a lot of heath benefits. You can be attached to something that’s not human and we’re already providing a lot of health and therapeutic technology to help older people in care homes. Why can we not provide sex tech as well?”

“The other thing that concerns me is the sexism. Women are massively underrepresented in the technology world and we see that reflected in the products.”

Back in 2007, artificial intelligence researcher David Levy from the University of Maastricht told LiveScience that people could be marrying robots – and consummating their vows – by 2050.

Although it might not appeal at first, he said, “once you have a story like ‘I had sex with a robot, and it was great!’ appear someplace like Cosmo magazine, I’d expect many people to jump on the bandwagon.”

In his PhD thesis, “Intimate Relationships with Artificial Partners”, Levy stated that the more human-like robots become in terms of personality, function and appearance, the more likely they are to form romantic partners for real people.

“It may sound a little weird, but it isn’t,” he said.

The Love and Sex with Robots congress is running at Goldsmiths, University of London from December 19-20.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/tech/sex-robots-could-reveal-your-9484716