Could the destruction of a beloved robot be considered a hate crime? An exploration of the legal and social significance of robot love

Bibliographic Data

ID20396666
AuthorsPaula Sweeney (0000-0003-1004-5571, University of Aberdeen, corresponding author)
Year2024
Volume39
Issue6
Pages2735-2741
Publication date2024-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAI & Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0951-5666 • E-ISSN: 1435-5655
PublisherSpringer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1007/s00146-023-01805-y
OpenAlexW4388704682
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited25

In the future, it is likely that we will form strong bonds of attachment and even develop love for social robots. Some of these loving relations will be, from the human’s perspective, as significant as a loving relationship that they might have had with another human. This means that, from the perspective of the loving human, the mindless destruction of their robot partner could be as devastating as the murder of another’s human partner. Yet, the loving partner of a robot has no recourse to legal action beyond the destruction of property and can see no way to prevent future people suffering the same devastating loss. On this basis, some have argued that such a scenario must surely motivate legal protection for social robots. In this paper, I argue that despite the devastating loss that would come from the destruction of one’s robot partner, love cannot itself be a reason for granting robot rights. However, although I argue against beloved robots having protective rights, I argue that the loss of a robot partner must be socially recognised as a form of bereavement if further secondary harms are to be avoided, and that, if certain conditions obtain, the destruction of a beloved robot could be criminalised as a hate crime

Human rights · Political science · Robot · Sociology · Computer Science · Ethics and Social Impacts of AI · Free Will and Agency · Law · Psychology · Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment · Social Psychology · Artificial Intelligence