one Article in post Last week brought such unacceptable risks into sharp focus and pointed to the kind of progress that, if fully realized, would reflect AI's assumption of fully human powers. Evan Li, CEO of Shenzhen's Starpree Technology, says his company is “developing a next-generation sex doll that can communicate with users vocally and physically”.
While Lee acknowledges that there are still technical challenges to achieving realistic human interaction, his company's goal is not just humanoid robots that provide sexual services, but robots that can do housework for people with disabilities or people with disabilities. Caring for the elderly. The news indicated. Cartoonist of the Post Asking if such robots will even be able to cook food?
Sex doll producers in China such as Starpery Technology are enhancing products with artificial intelligence for a modern user experience. Photo: Instagram/starperydollofficial
Even the most basic thought experiment makes it clear that Starpery's ambitions – and those of its rivals – cannot be fully achieved without the acquisition of essentially human-like robots that the EU considers “unacceptable”. will fall into the “risk” category.
As a major hub of USD 35 billion globally The sex toy industryChina will find itself at the center of the physical and ethical challenges that come with the increased use of AI in various industries.
And given America's insane imagination of what counts as a national security threat, I'm sure there's someone in the Pentagon willing to explain why AI-empowered sex dolls threaten national security. There is danger.
Production of Sex Robot The global sex toy industry has a relatively small share, with vibrators accounting for 54 percent of revenue. Sex toy review site Bedbull estimates that sex robots make up about 0.5 percent of the US$37 billion industry. The site puts the average price of sex robots sold at US$3,567 in 2022, down from US$24,000 in 2010.
A report in The Guardian in January The sex robot industry He questions the sector's projected growth rate and says simple logistics will impose limits beyond the overall hype of buying or owning a sex robot. It quotes writer Rob Brooks as saying, “They're big, they're clumsy, they're embarrassing if they're sitting on the couch when your friends come over. You need a big closet, literally and figuratively. Alternatively, if you have one.
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Sex doll 'married' in bizarre ritual outside Myanmar's holiest Buddhist shrine
Sex doll 'married' in bizarre ritual outside Myanmar's holiest Buddhist shrine
Lee lends further weight to this skepticism in the Post article, highlighting the significant challenges of batteries and Artificial muscles. Just as manufacturers like BYD and Tesla struggle to shrink batteries, sexbot makers are realizing that humanoid robots lack the space for large batteries and that current engines lack the flexibility of human muscles. .
Another factor holding back the sector is cost. Starpery prices its dolls at around US$1,500, while a high-end Harmony doll made by Abyss Creations in the United States starts at US$6,000. A humanoid robot Dalian-based Ex-Robots can cost up to US$276,000.
But even if sex robots remain a minor part of the industry and progress is slow, this new technological era appears to be here to stay. says Kate Devlin, an AI researcher at King's College London. Sex with robots “About the future, both near and far: science fiction utopias and dystopias, solitude and companionship, law and ethics, privacy and community. Above all, it's about being human in a world of machines.”
It's clear that sex robots aren't even close to being plausible companions. But as technologies improve and basic attitudes toward romance and sex become more technologically feasible, the distinctions between humans and humanoids become harder to discern. It is clear that sooner or later they will come up against the EU's “unacceptable threat” fronts.
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Inside a Chinese factory that makes humanoid robots with enhanced facial movements.
Inside a Chinese factory that makes humanoid robots with enhanced facial movements.
Ethical considerations also remain to be fully resolved. Sex robots have the potential to enable their owners to act on socially questionable concepts, although this is no different from concerns about pornography use or the abuse of sex workers.
Perhaps most problematic is the ethical aspect. Consent issue. The process of consent is exclusively human, and by definition a humanoid robot has no more capacity to consent than is programmed into the algorithms that drive it.
Orly Lobel, author and law professor at the University of San Diego, writes that cont The debate surrounding sex robots are complex, nuanced and uncomfortable. “Unless a robot is truly autonomous in its decision-making, it cannot truly consent.”
And even these debates will not be exclusively framed by the EU's AI Act, no matter how well-meaning the effort.
David Dodwell is CEO of trade policy and international relations consultancy Strategic Access, which focuses on developments and challenges facing the Asia-Pacific.
