Q&A: Robots, the Near Future, and Jewish Law
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Robots, the Near Future, and Jewish Law
Question
Elon Musk is developing an advanced robot with lots of functions for home use, and he wants to market it in 2026–2027. Would it be permitted to ask the robot to desecrate the Sabbath on your behalf?
A robot designed like a man / woman (there are already such things, and this is developing very quickly) — from the standpoint of Jewish law, would it be permitted to have intimate relations with it?
Answer
In my opinion, it does not have the status of a human being, but rather of a machine.