Humanoid sex robots may be considered a very particular niche, where robotics, psychology and sexuality intersectat the service of a problematic and affluent few. Whether they will become mainstream or not in the near or far future,discussing them can lead to interesting hints on why Artificial Intelligence may be a big deal, but not for the reasons one might think.

 

 

Mario Verdicchio is a Researcher at the School of Engineering at the University of Bergamo, Italy. He is the author of the book “L’informatica per la Comunicazione” (in Italian) (2016) and of a number of articles published on international journals (including Minds and Machines, Ethics and Information Technology, the International Journal of Social Robotics) and conference proceedings. In 2013 he co-founded the Conference on Computation, Communication, Aesthetics and X (xcoax.org), for which he works in multiple roles,including chief editor of the proceeding books. His scholarly works tackle issues in artificial intelligence, computer art and philosophy of computer science. He is a member of the newly founded Berlin Ethics Lab at the Technische Universität Berlin, Germany.