In a world where the sexuality of women and men is often still a taboo topic, sex robots are a very hard topic to approach, whether in research, as a manufacturer or even in daily conversations. The topic is often seen in a negative way, and questions arise of how the use of such robots will influence sexuality and intimacy in the future. Does the use of sex robots have a negative impact on people’s private lives? Will we stop interacting with other people and instead turn our attention towards these Artificial Intelligences?
In our literature research for this project we have clustered the relevant literature by themes discussed or mentioned in scientific literature. These clusters can be seen in the following table. The topics most prominently discussed include controversies, risks, possible future evolvement of sex robots, relationships, affection, and love as well as gender related aspects.
| Ethical aspects | |||
| Controversies | Risks | ||
| Definition of sex vs. masturbation | Child sex robots | Security and privacy | Addiction |
| Future of sex robots | |||
| Uncanny Valley | Sentience, conscience, robot rights | Moral machine | Post-humanist, new materialist |
| Relationships, affection, love | |||
| Human to robot relationship, companionship | Affection, love, bonding | Effects on human to human relationships | Replacement of humans by robots |
| Gender related aspects | |||
| Stereotypical gender roles, male gaze | Property, slavery, constant availability | Parallels to prostitution | Consent, rape, violence, male dominance |
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