Technology is giving rise to artificial erotic agents, which we call erobots (erôs + bot). Erobots, such as virtual or augmented partners, erotic chatbots, and sex robots, increasingly expose humans to the possibility of intimacy and sexuality with artificial agents. Their advent has sparked academic and public debates: some denounce their risks (e.g., promotion of harmful sociosexual norms), while others defend their potential benefits (e.g., health, education, and research applications). Yet, the scientific study of human–machine erotic interaction is limited; no comprehensive theoretical models have been proposed and the empirical literature remains scarce. The current research programs investigating erotic technologies tend to focus on the risks and benefits of erobots, rather than providing solutions to resolve the former and enhance the latter. Moreover, we feel that these programs underestimate how humans and machines unpredictably interact and co-evolve, as well as the influence of sociocultural processes on technological development and meaning attribution. To comprehensively explore human–machine erotic interaction and co-evolution, we argue that we need a new unified transdisciplinary field of research—grounded in sexuality and technology positive frameworks—focusing on human-erobot interaction and co-evolution as well as guiding the development of beneficial erotic machines. We call this field Erobotics. As a first contribution to this new discipline, this article defines Erobotics and its related concepts; proposes a model of human-erobot interaction and co-evolution; and suggests a path to design beneficial erotic machines that could mitigate risks and enhance human well-being.

技术正在产生人工色情代理，我们称之为erobots ( erôs +机器人）。Erobots，如虚拟或增强的伴侣、色情聊天机器人和性爱机器人，越来越多地让人类接触到与人工代理发生亲密关系和性行为的可能性。他们的出现引发了学术和公众的争论：一些人谴责他们的风险（例如，促进有害的社会性规范），而另一些人则捍卫他们的潜在利益（例如，健康、教育和研究应用）。然而，人机色情互动的科学研究是有限的；没有提出全面的理论模型，经验文献仍然稀缺。当前调查色情技术的研究项目倾向于关注机器人的风险和好处，而不是提供解决前者和增强后者的解决方案。而且，我们认为这些计划低估了人类和机器如何不可预测地相互作用和共同进化，以及社会文化过程对技术发展和意义归属的影响。为了全面探索人机情色交互和协同进化，我们认为我们需要一个新的统一的跨学科研究领域——以性和技术积极框架为基础——专注于人机交互和协同进化，并指导发展有益的色情机器。我们称这个领域 我们认为，我们需要一个新的统一的跨学科研究领域——以性和技术积极框架为基础——专注于人类与机器人的互动和共同进化，并指导有益的色情机器的发展。我们称这个领域 我们认为，我们需要一个新的统一的跨学科研究领域——以性和技术积极框架为基础——专注于人类与机器人的互动和共同进化，并指导有益的色情机器的发展。我们称这个领域情色。作为对这一新学科的第一次贡献，本文定义了 Erobotics 及其相关概念；提出了人机交互和共同进化的模型；并提出了一条设计有益的色情机器的途径，这些机器可以降低风险并增强人类福祉。