Bad news, guys: hackers could turn sex robots into Terminators!
If you’re not concerned about AI safety, you should be. Vastly more risk than North Korea. pic.twitter.com/2z0tiid0lc
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 12, 2017
Billionaire Tesla founder Elon Musk has said artificial intelligence is a bigger threat to the future of humanity than North Korea.
The tech mogul published a tweet suggesting “the machines will win” after Donald Trump threatened to unleash “fire and fury” against Kim Jong-un’s repressive regime.
He said AI poses “vastly more risk” to the world than North Korea.
Musk is one of the world’s most prominent critics of the unrestrained development of killer computers.
Now, another expert weighs in. And guys, just because you’re wearing protection, you won’t be safe!
With sex robots becoming increasingly popular and sophisticated, cybersecurity lecturer Dr. Nick Patterson revealed that the lifelike dolls could end up going all “Terminator” on us.
However, in the case of sex robots, the danger isn’t that the love dolls will end up developing minds of their own, “Westworld”-style.
Instead, the risk is that hackers could breach the realistic robots’ inner defenses and catch their owners with their pants down.
Patterson told Star Online that hacking into many modern-day robots, including sexbots, would be a piece of cake compared to more sophisticated gadgets like cellphones and computers.
The tech expert, from Australia’s Deakin University, said: “Hackers can hack into a robot or a robotic device and have full control of the connections, arms, legs and other attached tools like knives or welding devices.
“Once a robot is hacked, the hacker has full control and can issue instructions to the robot.”
And it’s not as if this is some far-off technology…
Sex robots are a booming field in artificial intelligence, and the race is on to build the first mass-market robotic erotic companion. Harmony, a $15,000 robot created by Matt McMullen at Abyss Creations, is programmed to be “docile, submissive, and built like a porn star.” Over five years, she has evolved through six iterations and is generating a lot of interest among robot doll aficionados. “My goal, in a very simple way, is to make people happy,” McMullen said. “There are a lot of people out there, for one reason or another, who have difficulty forming traditional relationships with other people. It’s really all about giving those people some level of companionship – or the illusion of companionship.”
Some sex robots have been programmed with actual personalities, and there are others that need to be seduced before you, uh, get down to business. Some robots can be stimulated to orgasm, and there are even plans for robot brothels in Europe.
As there are a surprising number of terms common to both sexual practices and computer hacking, we promise not to end this article with a cheap, cheezy “backdoor” joke – aw, darn. Too late.
