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Mindful Sex Robots Elicit Harsher Moral Judgments 1 Running head: MINDFUL SEX ROBOTS ELICIT HARSHER MORAL JUDGMENTS 1 Does “No” Mean No if She is a Sex Robot? Assessments of Sexual Consent Violation Impermissibility in the Case of Sex Robots Anastasiia D. Grigoreva Franklin & Marshall College Honors Thesis Submitted on May 6, 2020 to Scientific and Philosophical Studies of Mind Graduation date: May 16, 2020 MINDFUL SEX ROBOTS ELICIT HARSHER MORAL JUDGMENTS 2 Abstract The emergence of sex robot manufacturing introduces new major moral challenges to society. As the leading manufacturers of sex robots aim to incorporate the latest AI developments and highly realistic embodiment into their products, users are faced with entities that increasingly resemble human beings. If these sex robots are functionally similar enough to humans, it is plausible that people may be prone to grant them moral standing. This research investigated whether certain features of the sex robots’ AI and embodiment would lead people to perceive the robots as moral patients, as manifested in participants’ judgments of impermissibility of the sexual consent violation of the robots. Using a dyadic model of mind attribution, I found that robots represented as higher in agency and robots represented as higher in experience both elicited stronger judgments of impermissibility of sexual consent violation, when compared to robots who were represented in purely mechanistic terms. This effect was fully mediated by attributions of the robots' sexual consent capacity and vulnerability to harm. As there are currently almost no regulations on the production and use of sex robots as well as no other data available on whether people actually attribute mind and moral status to sex robots, this research provides insights on the potential consequences of advancing sex robotics. MINDFUL SEX ROBOTS ELICIT HARSHER MORAL JUDGMENTS 3 Does “No” Mean No if She is a Sex Robot? Assessments of Sexual Consent Violation Impermissibility in the Case of Sex Robots Sexual assault is a prevalent issue ruining the lives of many people. As technological developments continue to arrive in the sex industry, we need to ensure that innovation does not propagate problematic activities in society, such as rape. In 2017, Realbotix created a humanoid ​ ​ sex robot, Harmony, with artificial intelligence (AI) enabling the robot to produce natural-sounding speech, to learn and remember things that people tell her, and to exhibit patterns of communication indicative of personality. With the production and distribution of such robots, there come pressing challenges that can be addressed through the study of human perceptions of AI-powered humanoid robots. One of these questions is how to address sex robots’ potential to propagate the normativity of non-consensual sexual interactions between humans. Current sex robots are marketed as ever-willing and never-rejecting women-like entities which can very plausibly be used to enact rape fantasies. It is possible that the permissibility of problematic sexual activities with these advancing humanoid robots could propagate the normalization of problematic sexual activities among humans. It is, however, important to first assess whether non-consensual sexual interactions with humanoid sex robots are perceived as impermissible, and whether these sex robots are perceived to have human-like capacities. The effects that sex robots’ presence can have on the normalization of non-consensual acts will be demonstrated to be of particular concern to the extent that people actually perceive sex robots as possessing some type of human-like mind and moral standing. The concept of sexual assault is complex, and in philosophy, there are debates on whether robots could ever be victims of sexual assault (see Frank & Nyholm, 2017). Robots’ standing as the victims of the crimes such as sexual assault is, of course, an important question MINDFUL SEX ROBOTS ELICIT HARSHER MORAL JUDGMENTS 4 which deserves scrutiny. However, even if we cannot yet answer the question of whether certain kinds of AI robots truly possess a mind and moral standing, we ought to address the question of whether we as people attribute minds and moral standing to these entities. Given that sex robots are being designed both following the latest trends in AI and making use of innovations to introduce highly realistic human-like embodiment, they are likely to be anthropomorphized by people. If sex robots can indeed elicit mind attribution and moral standing, normalization of non-consensual sex practices with the robots could further exacerbate social perceptions of sexual assault of others with minds — i.e., assault of humans — making it more permissible in the eyes of the public as well as in the eyes of the individuals using sex robots. In order to begin to assess the extent to which the emergence of sex robotics could have an effect on people’s judgments of sexual consent violation permissibility, we first need to know what kinds of features of sex robots are likely to elicit mind and moral status attribution. Therefore, this study’s aim is to uncover whether the representations of sex robots as possessing different kinds of human-like capacities lead to different moral judgments in the cases of the robots’ sexual consent violation. Current Sex Robots Sex and technology have had a long history together: for instance, it has been noted that pornography and communication technology have had a mutual influence on each other (Coopersmith, 1998). The modern pinnacle of this union is the emergence of AI robots designed for human sexual gratification. Moving beyond sex doll production, several independent manufacturers are currently developing sex robots. The most recent and perhaps ambitious objective that the leaders of robotics companies have is to promote intimate, companionship-like relationships between the robots and their owners. The CEO of Realbotix by RealDoll (https://realbotix.com/), Matt McMullen, advertises his product not just as a sex robot ​ ​ MINDFUL SEX ROBOTS ELICIT HARSHER MORAL JUDGMENTS 5 but rather “a robot that will be capable of engaging in intimacy and sex” (Sharkey et al., 2017, p. ​ ​ 32; emphasis added). McMullen’s current project is a sex robot called Harmony, who has a robotic head and a full-sized female body. This robotic head is connected to the customizable AI software which can be used to customize Harmony’s personality traits and emotions, as well as to have conversations with her. A modular robotic head system of these sex robots allows them to display a variety of facial expressions, move their heads and blink with their eyes, and speak in various voices and accents. The appearance of sex robots produced by RealDolls is itself highly customizable: there are 14 labia and 42 nipple options (Kleeman, 2017). Sex robots’ eye color, pubic hair, ear shape, and the presence of freckles or tattoos are some examples of many little details to customize at an additional price (see www.realdoll.com/realdoll-x/ for ​ ​ examples). Similar characteristics of sex robots are emphasized by other leading manufacturers of sex robots, who focus on both highly realistic bodily features (such as robotic orgasm) and AI (such as natural speech and memory) (Sharkey et al., 2017). While currently produced and prospective robots fall short of their science fiction counterparts (see A.I. by Spielberg et al., 2001 & Westworld by Nolan et al., 2016), Western cultures may already have a potential market for these new technological artifacts (Scheutz & Arnold, 2016; Nesta FutureFest, 2016; Huffington Post poll, 2013; Szczuka & Kramer, 2017). Several Ethical Questions Raised in Literature As the customers of Realbotix are continuously tempted by giveaways and holiday discounts on their prospective sexual companions, researchers ought to contemplate and study a range of ethical and legal challenges arising from the emergence of this sex technology. There are several ethical questions that philosophers have begun to address, which I would like to highlight in this section before proceeding to the main issue of interest in this paper. As some argue (e.g., Sharkey et al., 2017), even AI-powered robots are incapable of genuine emotional MINDFUL SEX ROBOTS ELICIT HARSHER MORAL JUDGMENTS 6 experience, rendering relationships with these artifacts forever one-sided, regardless of the human potential tendency to perceive reciprocity. The development of sophisticated sex robots can lead to a human’s illusory perception of intimate companionship. This could pose a threat and disrespect to human dignity (Sullins, 2012). At the same time, these concerns themselves may threaten human agency as they have a sense of paternalism as to whether one ought to treat a sex robot as a companion. Additionally, those who choose to engage in intimate relationships with sex robots could become more socially isolated (Sullins, 2012), as several scholars argue by pointing to the simplicity of communication with the robots and complexity of communication with the humans (Turkle, 2011), moral and social deskilling (Vallor, 2015), and the possible addictive nature of robot sex (Snell, 1997). On the other side, proponents of sex robotics enumerate the positive implications that this technological development can have when used in therapeutic ways. Some of these contexts include the use of sex robots for people with social and emotional problems (Levy, 2008), for the elderly (Martin, 2016), and for people with disabilities (Di Nucci, 2017) who are otherwise incapable of exercising their sexual
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