Dating a droid? A quarter of people haven't ruled out the idea of a robotic relationship

About a quarter of people haven't ruled out the idea of dating a robot, according to a new survey, and the Dutch are the most accepting of the idea of artificial amour. Researchers from the University of Twente used data from the EU-backed SIENNA project that studies ethics and opinions surrounding cutting edge technology. They surveyed 11,000 people and found 27 per cent either supported the idea of dating a robot or hadn't completely ruled it out, and 72 per cent were completely opposed to the idea of a digital dalliance. In the Netherlands support for someone having a robotic boyfriend or girlfriend went up to 53 per cent, the highest of the 11 countries involved in the survey. The multinational telephone survey by the Dutch research team also found that people were uncomfortable with robots that look and behave like humans. About a quarter of people haven't ruled out the idea of dating a robot, according to a new survey, and the Dutch are the most accepting of the idea of artificial amour We are getting used to interacting with intelligent machines, from robot vacuum cleaners, smart speakers that can control our lights and AI assistants in our phones.