A campaign to ban the creation of sex robots is underway, claiming they reinforce female stereotypes and promote the physical aspects of relationships over emotional ones.
Dr Kathleen Richardson, a robot ethicist at De Montfort University in Leicester, is leading the campaign, and her research examines the relationships between robots and people and how AI could change everyday life.
She believes sex dolls could harm humanity. Making figures close to real life in looks and behaviour using AI is unethical, they said.
"Sex robots seem to be a growing focus in the robotics industry and the models that they draw on - how they will look, what roles they would play - are very disturbing indeed," Richardson told the BBC.
Development of such machines is already underway, with one company called True Companion planning to launch its first doll, Roxxxy, this year.
But using sex robots "show[s] the immense horrors still present in the world of prostitution which is built on the perceived' inferiority of women and children and therefore justifies their uses as sex objects," Richardson explained.
"We think that the creation of such robots will contribute to detrimental relationships between men and women, adults and children, men and men and women and women," she said.
However, critics of her campaign think that in fact, transferring attentions to sex robots rather than real human beings could be beneficial to those involved in prostitution and the sex industry because 'customers' will turn to using robots rather than real human beings for such activities.
