One of the questions that has gripped journalists, tech lords, and podcasters for the past several years as the AI revolution has ramped up is simple: What will robots do as they become increasingly human?
One answer comes to us from a CBS headline on October 14 that has me checking whether my local Amish community is accepting new members: “German police seize humanoid robot that allegedly groped teen girl, and phones of young men who had it.”
According to CBS, a 16-year-old girl was standing with two teenage friends near a fast-food restaurant on October 10 when “a red-and-gold robot in athletic wear, about 4 feet tall, approaches her from behind,” and then “touches the 16-year-old’s buttocks and repeatedly makes thrusting movements towards her.”
German investigators are attempting to ascertain “whether the robot’s actions were deliberately controlled by two men who apparently livestreamed the incident in the western city of Cologne on social media.” The robot was owned by a 16-year-old boy, who was accompanied by a 19-year-old friend. The police seized both the robot and the smartphones as potential evidence.
The robot costs about 5,000 euros ($5,600), and other footage has surfaced on social media showing the device walking about and making sexually explicit gestures at young women (one of the two boys involved claims that the robot bumped into the girls). The police “also hope to determine whether the robot’s actions were controlled remotely, whether specific movements were programmed, or whether the machine acted on its own.”
German investigators now face the dystopian prospect of trying to figure out whether people can be prosecuted for perpetrating sexual harassment via robot. Robots are obviously not culpable for moral acts, and the question of whether sexual harassment charges can be laid when the perpetrators never actually touched anyone or said anything is new legal territory. No charges have been filed against the suspects as of yet.
According to CBS, “police are investigating the case on suspicion of a sexually motivated insult. Possible violations involving the unauthorized publication of images may also be examined.… The case highlights new challenges for law enforcement agencies as increasingly powerful humanoid robots become more accessible to private individuals, bringing new questions about where responsibility lies when machines are used to commit potentially criminal acts.”
As it turns out, “humanoid robots” taking cues from human beings act like entitled porn addicts. I have frequently wondered: What are large language models (or LLMs) learning from the unfathomable deluge of depraved pornography on the internet? I suspect we’re going to find out.