Use BBC.com or the new BBC App to listen to BBC podcasts, Radio 4 and the World Service outside the UK.

Find out how to listen to other BBC stations

Episode details

World Service,17 May 2017,17 mins

Rise of the Sex Robots

Business Daily

Available for over a year

Could robots designed for sex and companionship really substitute human relationships? Jane Wakefield visits a sex robot factory in California where creator Matt McMullen introduces his sex robot, Harmony, and explains why his product might help people struggling to form relationships in real life. International robotics expert Noel Sharkey and robot ethicist Kathleen Richardson discuss the ethical questions this new technology throws up, and ask whether we need international rules on how robots are developed and used. (Photo: Sex robot heads being manufactured at the Abyss Creations factory in California, Credit: BBC)

Programme Website
More episodes