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I now pronounce you husband and robot...

Amber Thomas
Chinese engineer and AI expert, Zheng Jiajia, felt so lonely after not having any luck finding a human wife that he decided to marry a robot he built. After "dating" for 2 months, the couple tied the knot. He plans to upgrade his robotic wife in the future to give her the ability to walk, move and even do household chores.


Read more at: http://nextshark.com/chinese-engineer-marries-ai-robot-no-luck-women/


Is this a one-off or is this a sign of things to come? Would you be tempted to find/build a robotic partner, would you prefer to wait for a compatible human or would you rather be single? What "upgrades" would you want to build into your partner?
  • Former Community Member
    0 Former Community Member
    How did the doll give consent to marriage? Is this marriage legal - will the doll inherit his belongings?

    So many more questions - just because this situation makes no sense.

  • 0

    Antonia Tzemanaki:

    How did the doll give consent to marriage? Is this marriage legal - will the doll inherit his belongings?

    So many more questions - just because this situation makes no sense.




    Yes - so many questions! If he made her, does that make him her dad? Would that make it incest? 

  • Former Community Member
    0 Former Community Member
    This story can only be meant as to impress and annoy.

    Robotics is quite far from building something which could qualify as just even a maid (certainly not a wife!!). Assistive robots in the most major labs of the world do basic things and in fact very specific things. Robots that can act generically are too difficult to buit and this is why we have robot vaccums and not robots that can both vaccumm and cook.


    I cannot imagine what this guy was thinking when he announced his 'marriage'. The most innocent reason I can think of would be to make it to a newspaper's headline or somehow promote his work as an AI researcher?

  • 0
    I'm assuming the AI hasn't passed the Turing Test yet, so not sure if they can have consent.
  • Former Community Member
    0 Former Community Member

    Antonia Tzemanaki:

    How did the doll give consent to marriage? Is this marriage legal - will the doll inherit his belongings?

    So many more questions - just because this situation makes no sense.

     




    I also found the story elsewhere and it states that the marriage is not legally recognised. So I supposed it's all a bit sensationalist and he hasn't "married" the robot at all.


    It does however raise some interesting questions. On the subject of consent, if we're adhering strictly to Asimov's laws of robotics, he doesn't need consent from her because a robot must obey orders from humans. 


    On the face of it, it all seems fairly harmless. But I wonder what effect it will have on people's expectations in the long-run. For example, will it become normal again for a husband to believe that he literally owns his wife? Is it right that someone could design their ideal partner? I think the reality is that most of us will still prefer a romantic relationship with an actual human. 

  • Former Community Member
    0 Former Community Member

    David Houssein:



    But I wonder what effect it will have on people's expectations in the long-run. For example, will it become normal again for a husband to believe that he literally owns his wife? Is it right that someone could design their ideal partner? I think the reality is that most of us will still prefer a romantic relationship with an actual human. 





    This is exactly why such a 'union' can never be legal. A robot cannot give consent, as at the moment AI is not advanced enough, therefore, legally, a robot is an object. In the future, with AI advancements, thre will be a need for more laws regarding the subject. Discussions on the ethical, legal and societal aspects of robotics are already taking place frequently. In the European Robotics Forum which took place last month, there were at least 5 different workshops on this topic.


    It does not seem harmless to me, because it is common for the media to report any advancement in robotics in negative ways. Most commonly, facts are misinterpreted and presented in a way similar to 'robots will steal your jobs'. I find the sensationalism that this article promotes similar to this.

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