Sex robots on way for elderly and lonely...but pleasure-bots have a dark side, warn experts

But the authors warned that the march of sex robots raised serious moral and ethical questions which needed to be addressed. They warned that users could become socially isolated or even addicted to the machines which could never replace real human contact. "It's very sad because it's going to be a one way relationship," said Prof Sharkey. You are loving an artefact that can't love you back, and the best they can do is fake it." The report also warned of a'darker' side to the industry in which companies were programming'shy' or'reluctant' personalities into their dolls so that users could feel they were forcing the robots to have sex.