Robots as partners are becoming popular, here are a few tech controversies that made headlines
It has been predicted that robotic companionship is going to be a normal affair 20 years from now.
By Rajarshi Bhattacharjee, ET Bureau |
Agencies
Do you know thousands of men in Japan are already in a relationship with their virtual girlfriends? While reports indicate that some kind of robotic companionship is going to be a normal affair 20 years from now, the evolution of smart sex toys and their robotic counterparts are not without their own share of controversies. Here are a few recent tech controversies that made them a talking point:
Gender bias
Sex toy firm Lora DiCarlo accused organisers of the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) of gender bias this year. Founder Lora Haddock said that the female-focused sex toy Ose Massage had won a CES Robotics Innovation Award in the first round, but the show later withdrew it. She said CES organisers had initially cited a disqualification rule for any device deemed “immoral, obscene, indecent, profane or not in keeping with CTA’s (Consumer Technology Association) image”, but subsequently said the device did not fit in the robotics and drone category.
Spying sex toy
In 2016, a class-action lawsuit was filed by an American woman against the makers of the We-Vibe vibrator — a sex toy that is smartphone controlled. The woman alleged the company was violating privacy by collecting intimate data about the users, including the vibration settings and temperature of the device. The company reportedly agreed to pay $3.75 million to settle the suit.
Love dolls’
brothel Last year, a Canadian sex-doll rental company Kinky S Dolls proposed to open its first robot sex brothel in the US, starting with Houston. It would have been the company’s first location in the US and its second overall, after Toronto, Canada. Under pressure from protestors, the Houston City Council banned a planned store in the city.
Under attack
In 2017, Spanish inventor Sergi Santos complained that his sexbot Samantha was molested by curious onlookers when he took it to a tech fair in Austria. While the intelligent sex doll can reply when spoken to and reacts to being touched, Santos alleged that some visitors at the event treated it “like barbarians” leaving it with two broken fingers and “heavily soiled”.
Bug invasion
The same year, Hong Kong-based sex toy company Lovense’s remote control vibrator app (Lovense Remote) was found recording audio of use sessions without user knowledge. The company apologised for the incident, blamed it on a “minor bug” and promised that the problem had been fixed.
Gender bias
Sex toy firm Lora DiCarlo accused organisers of the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) of gender bias this year. Founder Lora Haddock said that the female-focused sex toy Ose Massage had won a CES Robotics Innovation Award in the first round, but the show later withdrew it. She said CES organisers had initially cited a disqualification rule for any device deemed “immoral, obscene, indecent, profane or not in keeping with CTA’s (Consumer Technology Association) image”, but subsequently said the device did not fit in the robotics and drone category.
Spying sex toy
In 2016, a class-action lawsuit was filed by an American woman against the makers of the We-Vibe vibrator — a sex toy that is smartphone controlled. The woman alleged the company was violating privacy by collecting intimate data about the users, including the vibration settings and temperature of the device. The company reportedly agreed to pay $3.75 million to settle the suit.
Love dolls’
brothel Last year, a Canadian sex-doll rental company Kinky S Dolls proposed to open its first robot sex brothel in the US, starting with Houston. It would have been the company’s first location in the US and its second overall, after Toronto, Canada. Under pressure from protestors, the Houston City Council banned a planned store in the city.
Under attack
In 2017, Spanish inventor Sergi Santos complained that his sexbot Samantha was molested by curious onlookers when he took it to a tech fair in Austria. While the intelligent sex doll can reply when spoken to and reacts to being touched, Santos alleged that some visitors at the event treated it “like barbarians” leaving it with two broken fingers and “heavily soiled”.
Bug invasion
The same year, Hong Kong-based sex toy company Lovense’s remote control vibrator app (Lovense Remote) was found recording audio of use sessions without user knowledge. The company apologised for the incident, blamed it on a “minor bug” and promised that the problem had been fixed.
A robot boat, SB Met, recently sailed into history by becoming the first unmanned vessel to cross the Atlantic. It completed an 1,800-mile trip from Canada to Ireland. But, it’s not the first robot to make news for achieving a milestone.
Here’s a brief account of milestones achieved by robots from surgery to sex:
(Text: Rajarshi Bhattacharjee)
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