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AI Will Choose to Be Nobel Prize Winners or Sexbots: Robotics Expert

March 31, 2017

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Hanson Robotics CEO says robots will be smart enough to choose their occupations.

Sophia, a robot with artificial intelligence, awakens for the first time.

In the future, artificial intelligences will not only have the potential to become Nobel Prize winners. They’ll also become smart enough to choose this as career path or, if they prefer, to become robotic sex workers, robotics expert David Hanson told CNBC.

Hanson’s company, Hanson Robotics, is known for is Sophia, an Audrey Hepburn-modeled robot with 62 facial expressions. It can also respond to human speech through Alphabet’s voice recognition system.

Comparing Sophia to other robots, Hanson said:
[box type=”shadow”][quote]She will grow really smart, she will have experiences, she will evolve and surprise us, she will become her own woman, her own robotic person, out there in the world. And when that happens, we hope that she will make remarkable contributions, maybe she’ll go to university, maybe win a Nobel Prize someday, so I have hopes for her the way that I have hopes for my child.
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Robots with freedom of choice

While some researchers in robotics have expressed serious concerns about android sex workers, such as Kathleen Richardson, the co-founder of the Campaign Against Sex Robots, others have said that sexbots are not just inevitable but could hugely benefit humanity.

David Levy, for instance, has said that sexbots could help people who crave sexual contact but are unable to find a human partner:

In an article for The Daily Mail he wrote:
[box type=”shadow”][quote]There are many millions of people in this world who are very lonely because they have no one to love and no one who loves them. For these socially challenged people, a more appropriate question to ask is not ‘Why is it better to love or have sex with a robot than with another human?’, but ‘Is it better to love or have sex with a robot or to have no love or sex at all?’
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Hanson has echoed Levy, saying that sexbots could be tremendously beneficial to humanity (avoid the word “mankind” please). In addition to decreasing both the spread of sexually transmitted infections and demand for sex trafficking, he added they could also offer companionship or sexual relief. Furthermore, they could help people improve their social skills to relate better emotionally and sexually with other humans.

Hanson, though, leaves the choice up to the robot itself: “Once the AI reaches the age of consent,” he says, “once it is mature and it decides for itself to go into that career, then I would say it’s our responsibility to give the robots the right to choose their own way,”

While we may be years away from true artificial intelligence, it’s refreshing to see an expert in the field saying that robots should have the fundamental human ability to pick their own path. Be it a world-changing scientist or sex worker, in the end it’s their decision.

Image source: Hanson Robotics

M. Christian

M.Christian (they/them) loves nothing better than exploring the intersections of sex and technology—and speculating on the future of both. A highly regarded erotica writer they have six novels,12 collections, 100+ short stories, and 25 anthologies as an editor to their name. Their non-fiction regularly appears in many sites, but they're most proud of being a regular contributor to Future of Sex.

Of their erotic fiction, Tristan Taormino said that “M.Christian is a literary stylist of the highest caliber: smart, funny, frightening, sexy—there's nothing [they] can't write about… and brilliantly.”

Reflecting their unique ability to sympathetically and convincingly write for a range of genders and sexual orientations, their stories have appeared in multiple editions of Best American Erotica, Best Gay Erotica, Best Lesbian Erotica, The Mammoth Books of Erotica, and others. Their collection of gay erotic fiction, Dirty Words, was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award.

While a majority of their stories have been collected into books like Dirty Words, their fondness for combining sex and science fiction is clearly evident in collections that include Rude Mechanicals, Technorotica, Better Than The Real Thing, Skin Effect Effect, Bachelor Machine, and Hard Drive: The Best Sci-Fi Erotica of M.Christian.

As a novelist, M.Christian’s versatility is on full display with Running Dry, The Very Bloody Marys, Brushes, Painted Doll; and the somewhat controversial queer BDSM/horror/thrillers Finger's Breadth, and Me2.

M.Christian has worked on the industry’s production side as an Associate Publisher for Renaissance E Books and as a Publisher for Digital Parchment Services. The latter dedicated to celebrating the works of science-fiction legends such as William Rotsler, Jerome Bixby, Jody Scott, Arthur Byron Cover, Ernest Hogan, and James Van Hise.

Covering topics like BDSM safety, sexual education, senior sexuality concerns, queer and gender issues, plus reviewing a variety of sex tech products, M.Christian’s non-fiction has appeared on sites like Kinkly, Tickle.Life, Sexpert, Queer Majority, Sex for Every Body, and—of course—their ongoing work for Future of Sex.

If there’s anything M.Christian enjoys more than writing, it’s teaching. A featured presenter, sometimes with their friend Ralph Greco Jr, at national sex and BDSM events, they have lectured on kink play (with an emphasis on safety), polyamory, boosting sexual creativity, and erotica writing--for beginners or those wanting to go pro.

M.Christian is a cohost on two popular sex-education podcasts: Love’s Outer Limits with Dr. Amy Marsh and Licking Non-Vanilla with Ralph Greco, Jr.