Cybersecurity researcher warns that future sex robots could kill users if hacked

[midian182]

Back in July, a new report suggested that a revolution in the sex robot industry was on its way. While this has led to concerns over issues such as humans preferring to form relationships with machines, there are new worries that future robots could be hacked and potentially harm, or even kill, their owners.

Nick Patterson, a lecturer specializing in technology at Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia, believes that sex robots will, like so many household products, eventually feature online connectivity. And, as is the case with all connected devices, there’s a risk they could be hacked.

“Hackers can hack into a robot or a robotic device and have full control of the connections, arms, legs and other attached tools like in some cases knives or welding devices,” said Patterson.

“Often these robots can be upwards of 200 pounds, and very strong. Once a robot is hacked, the hacker has full control and can issue instructions to the robot. The last thing you want is for a hacker to have control over one of these robots! Once hacked they could absolutely be used to perform physical actions for an advantageous scenario or to cause damage.”

This may all sound like hokum, and it assumes that these machines will eventually become internet-connected and have advanced mobility/AI features, but it’s not totally outside the realms of possibility.

Last month, IOActive showed how it could take over consumer robots and control them remotely. It turned the UBTech Alpha 2 mini robot into a version a Chucky by making it repeatedly stab a tomato with a screwdriver. A full-sized robot with a mechanical skeleton and controllable limbs could damage a lot more than just fruit, so remember to switch your Cherry 2000 model into offline mode before use.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/70946-cybersecurity-researcher-warns-future-sex-robots-could-kill.html

 

[Kenrick]

Why is it I did not think about this. Too late to return.

 

[Nobina]

As if other non-sex robots can't kill us if hacked, they're probably made for just that.

 

[Nobina]

As if other non-sex robots can't kill us if hacked, they're probably made for just that.

If you use sex robots you might do it yourself.

 

[davislane1]

This will probably hurt sales of the Xenia Onatopp model.

 

[seefizzle]

Watch the movie Ex Machina. It's an amazing movie and deals with AI powered robots.

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

Those weirdo's who prefer this sort of thing had better... er, come quickly... to avoid being offed by their 'partner'. Damn man! What's this world 'coming' to?
Puns intended of course.

 

[Julio Franco]

Austin Powers had it right all along...

 

[seefizzle]

Those weirdo's who prefer this sort of thing had better... er, come quickly... to avoid being offed by their 'partner'. Damn man! What's this world 'coming' to?
Puns intended of course.

Follow me for a second...

At a certain point in time, sex robots will be sufficiently realistic. Coupled with artificial intelligence, and perhaps virtual reality, there will be a point when sex robots are actually pretty awesome. How far off will that time be? Ten years? 15 years, 20 years? The advances in AI, robotics, and virtual reality are coming quicker and quicker.

So version 1.0 and 2.0 of the sex robots will probably be not that wonderful, but even at this stage there will be a certain percentage of the "weirdos" out there that will still buy in. Think about how many guys, the super nerds, the creeps, the weirdos, the fat basement dwellers, the un-f*ckable men out there that might just forego the whole dating and mating experience and just buy a sex robot. What percentage of the population do you think that might be? 2%? 5%?

As time goes on the robots will get better and better. Each successive generation of sex robots will become more and more appealing to the fringes of the male population. (Maybe the female population too). The percentage of men choosing sex robots over the very flawed human women will increase as time goes by. Increases in AI will make the robots into perfect human companions emotionally speaking too. Men will no longer require the entire spectacle that is dating / mating.

At what percentage of men choosing robots over real women does the entire population collapse? Our species is evenly split 50 / 50 or 49 / 51 male vs female. If we remove 10% of the male population from propagating the species, then the population numbers start to decline rapidly and in a few generations humans can no longer reproduce at rates capable of sustaining our species.

We're all afraid of the terminator robots taking over and killing us all. I think we'll be safe in that regard because we'll all be fully aware of the risks and we'll build the proper safeguards. The sex robots on the other hand... they'll kill us all without anyone noticing. We'll all just be sitting back, relaxing, not being nagged to death by our wives, getting a beejer as the population simply collapses around us.

 

[andy06shake]

Some sick bastards will pay extra for the death ride, that's a given really.

 

[Arris]

Glad we had experts to tell us of this possibility... </sarcasm>

 

[amstech]

As time goes on the robots will get better and better. Each successive generation of sex robots will become more and more appealing to the fringes of the male population. (Maybe the female population too). The percentage of men choosing sex robots over the very flawed human women will increase as time goes by. Increases in AI will make the robots into perfect human companions emotionally speaking too. Men will no longer require the entire spectacle that is dating / mating.

At what percentage of men choosing robots over real women does the entire population collapse? Our species is evenly split 50 / 50 or 49 / 51 male vs female. If we remove 10% of the male population from propagating the species, then the population numbers start to decline rapidly and in a few generations humans can no longer reproduce at rates capable of sustaining our species.
.

The world is over-populated now, we could use a serious reduction in numbers.
It would benefit many aspects of society.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Those weirdo's who prefer this sort of thing had better... er, come quickly... to avoid being offed by their 'partner'. Damn man! What's this world 'coming' to?
Puns intended of course.

Follow me for a second...

At a certain point in time, sex robots will be sufficiently realistic. Coupled with artificial intelligence, and perhaps virtual reality, there will be a point when sex robots are actually pretty awesome. How far off will that time be? Ten years? 15 years, 20 years? The advances in AI, robotics, and virtual reality are coming quicker and quicker.

So version 1.0 and 2.0 of the sex robots will probably be not that wonderful, but even at this stage there will be a certain percentage of the "weirdos" out there that will still buy in. Think about how many guys, the super nerds, the creeps, the weirdos, the fat basement dwellers, the un-f*ckable men out there that might just forego the whole dating and mating experience and just buy a sex robot. What percentage of the population do you think that might be? 2%? 5%?

As time goes on the robots will get better and better. Each successive generation of sex robots will become more and more appealing to the fringes of the male population. (Maybe the female population too). The percentage of men choosing sex robots over the very flawed human women will increase as time goes by. Increases in AI will make the robots into perfect human companions emotionally speaking too. Men will no longer require the entire spectacle that is dating / mating.

At what percentage of men choosing robots over real women does the entire population collapse? Our species is evenly split 50 / 50 or 49 / 51 male vs female. If we remove 10% of the male population from propagating the species, then the population numbers start to decline rapidly and in a few generations humans can no longer reproduce at rates capable of sustaining our species.

We're all afraid of the terminator robots taking over and killing us all. I think we'll be safe in that regard because we'll all be fully aware of the risks and we'll build the proper safeguards. The sex robots on the other hand... they'll kill us all without anyone noticing. We'll all just be sitting back, relaxing, not being nagged to death by our wives, getting a beejer as the population simply collapses around us.

Considering the people these robots appeal to cant get a regular partner anyway, I doubt it is going to significantly affect population growth.

Also, there are over 7 billion people on this planet, rapidly approaching 8 billion. We are nowhere near the risk of population collapse.

If taking 10% of all breeding age men out of the breeding scene would have tanked our species, then multiple wars in the past should have destroyed human civilization. WWII, the civil war, hell the bronze age collapse would have obliterated humanity if that were true. By your logic, it would have been impossible for humans to recover from the black plague or Spanish flu. Somehow, I feel we will be just fine.

 

[seefizzle]

Considering the people these robots appeal to cant get a regular partner anyway, I doubt it is going to significantly affect population growth.

Also, there are over 7 billion people on this planet, rapidly approaching 8 billion. We are nowhere near the risk of population collapse.

If taking 10% of all breeding age men out of the breeding scene would have tanked our species, then multiple wars in the past should have destroyed human civilization. WWII, the civil war, hell the bronze age collapse would have obliterated humanity if that were true. By your logic, it would have been impossible for humans to recover from the black plague or Spanish flu. Somehow, I feel we will be just fine.

Those were one off events with successive generations continuing to breed over time and the population rebounding. In my cockamamie scenario, more and more of the male population drop off and never return over time. It starts as 2% but over time it builds to 25% or more.

 

[mbrowne5061]

Considering the people these robots appeal to cant get a regular partner anyway, I doubt it is going to significantly affect population growth.

Also, there are over 7 billion people on this planet, rapidly approaching 8 billion. We are nowhere near the risk of population collapse.

If taking 10% of all breeding age men out of the breeding scene would have tanked our species, then multiple wars in the past should have destroyed human civilization. WWII, the civil war, hell the bronze age collapse would have obliterated humanity if that were true. By your logic, it would have been impossible for humans to recover from the black plague or Spanish flu. Somehow, I feel we will be just fine.

Those were one off events with successive generations continuing to breed over time and the population rebounding. In my cockamamie scenario, more and more of the male population drop off and never return over time. It starts as 2% but over time it builds to 25% or more.

Too bad things like artificial insemination, reproduction drive, and test tube babies aren't a thing. /s

I also think we'll be just fine. I can easily picture the Catholic Church stepping in - in your "cockamamie scenario" - to offer homes, food, and money to people who donate their sperm, eggs, and possibly even bodies to producing more (catholic) babies. I can also see other governments that already dabble in various population/breeding controls (China, Finland jump immediately to mind) creating similar schemes.

Hell, with CRISPR, you would probably see some deliberately designed babies from some of the more daring organizations. Not the Catholic Church, but maybe Finland to increase genetic diversity, and possibly China because "why not?"

 

[Underdog]

Doesn't sound such a bed scenario to me. I'm not a bad looking guy and never had a lot of problem getting females interested. I could still enjoy having a cyber girlfriend that looked fabulous and doesn't want to use me to get pregnant and take my money, and then spend all day pointing out my shortcomings.

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

Considering the people these robots appeal to cant get a regular partner anyway, I doubt it is going to significantly affect population growth.

Also, there are over 7 billion people on this planet, rapidly approaching 8 billion. We are nowhere near the risk of population collapse.

If taking 10% of all breeding age men out of the breeding scene would have tanked our species, then multiple wars in the past should have destroyed human civilization. WWII, the civil war, hell the bronze age collapse would have obliterated humanity if that were true. By your logic, it would have been impossible for humans to recover from the black plague or Spanish flu. Somehow, I feel we will be just fine.

What the hell are you talking about???

 

[Hellbishop]

Looks like someone is planning to be the new Kaspersky antivirus of sex robots.

 

[namesrejected]

Considering the people these robots appeal to cant get a regular partner anyway, I doubt it is going to significantly affect population growth.

These are also the people smart enough to figure out how to make these robots impregnable, and stupid enough to do it.

 

[namesrejected]

Considering the people these robots appeal to cant get a regular partner anyway, I doubt it is going to significantly affect population growth.

Also, there are over 7 billion people on this planet, rapidly approaching 8 billion. We are nowhere near the risk of population collapse.

If taking 10% of all breeding age men out of the breeding scene would have tanked our species, then multiple wars in the past should have destroyed human civilization. WWII, the civil war, hell the bronze age collapse would have obliterated humanity if that were true. By your logic, it would have been impossible for humans to recover from the black plague or Spanish flu. Somehow, I feel we will be just fine.

Those were one off events with successive generations continuing to breed over time and the population rebounding. In my cockamamie scenario, more and more of the male population drop off and never return over time. It starts as 2% but over time it builds to 25% or more.

This would benefit mankind, were breeding like rabbits now.

 

[Draconian]

What a way to go. Killed by your sex robot.

 

[captaincranky]

@midian 182 I'm in the middle of binge re-watching Joss Wedon and Eliza Dushku's "Dollhouse". so I'm well aware of where you're coming from.

Although "Dollhouse" wrapped up almost a decade ago....Um, jus' sayin'.

Here's the young lady herself in an show outfit which was categorized as, "S & M Barbie".

Um, "kitten with a whip", as it were.

While the "dolls" were indeed human, an action show / cautionary tale such as this, demanded that they be "programmed" to kill a client or two..

(Although, there is somewhat less physical violence in the show than something like, "NCIS: Los Angeles").

 

[captaincranky]

Austin Powers had it right all along...View attachment 83290

I love the Nancy Sinatra teased well beyond any semblance of good taste, hairdos.

Maybe they should have redone Nancy's big hit, "These Boots....", for the movie.

Sort of, "these boobs were made for blastin' and that's just what they'll do....."

(OK, I know I'm a pig and I'm not ashamed to admit it)..

 

[Jamlad]

So, ahem, Death by Sexy?

I'll see myself out.

 

[ChrisH1]

Your current non-robotic sex partner could kill you right now ... no need to wait for the future, hacked or otherwise.