Cutting Edge Computing

I Suppose It Was Inevitable February 19, 2020

I read this article on the development of robots for sex purposes with a certain amount of incredulity.  We probably all have deep fantasies (mine are pretty tame compared to stuff like this), and perhaps at first glance it represents a harmless (but expensive) way of acting them out.

But is it harmless?  We learn about ourselves and human nature in general through feedback from real live humans.  And they learn from us in the same way.  Certainly artificial general intelligences (AGI), even in their infancy, can learn things from human interaction and respond in perhaps unexpected ways.

But if you buy (or rent, I suppose) a sex robot, ultimately you are going to get your way.  That’s the whole purpose.  The robot may look like a child, or it may shout “Rape!”, but you will not be arrested.  How could you be?  And with that, how will you respond in other circumstances when the robot is actually a real live human being?  That is the Big Problem here.

We interact with other people, casually and intimately, for multiple reasons.  Sometimes we lack the interpersonal skills to do it well, and the relationship breaks down.  We fail, and failure is a part of life.  We learn (or not), and move on.  I hope we learn a lot.  But learning from an AGI isn’t nearly the same as learning from a real live human being.

With an AGI sex robot, we may learn that we just have to keep forcing the issue, that the entity will eventually give us what we want.  In other words, we won’t fail with the robot, no matter what our goal.  And that is the wrong lesson.

The cited article talks about legislation against AGI sex robots.  I’m not sure legislation is the answer.  How about common sense?

I have been reading over the last couple of years with some amusement about various Bills of Rights for AI entities.  Silly and stupid, I think.  Now I am questioning that stance, not for the benefit of the robot, but for the benefit of society as a whole.  I find myself upset over this, and I hope you might consider being so too.