By Chamari Edirisinghe, Adrian David Cheok
When David Levy first introduced the subject of ‘love and sex with robots’, he became a provocateur of a conversation that spread from morality to the rights of robots. With the rapid development in Artificial Intelligence functions, love and sex with robots is expected to be a reality in near future. However, the question remains, how much humans understand and accept intimacies with robots. We argue that perceptions of human-robot interactions (HRI) have a certain impact on how individuals comprehend intimacies with robots.
We are proposing a series of studies to determine female perception, and physiological responses to intimacy with robots. In the first stage, we will conduct a qualitative study on a group of females aged between 20-40 years, to understand their perception of topics on HRI. The second stage will measure their physiological responses when touching an asexual robot intimately, using the electrodermal activities. In the third stage, the study will concentrate on a qualitive study, where perception of certain phenomenon related to HRI is examined.