Arguably the world's most famous sex doll, Samantha has a new feature. Samantha will now go into ‘dummy mode’ if she detects that her user is being too aggressive or if she feels bored by her user's sexual behavior. Dummy mode, doesn’t mean you can’t engage in sexual activities with Samantha, it just means she won't respond physically or verbally.

Samantha’s inventor, Dr. Sergi Santos unveiled the new feature at the Life Science Center in Newcastle, England earlier this week. Santos says he created the new feature at the insistence of his wife.

Sex robot will go 'lifeless' when used aggressively

When in dummy mode, the motorized parts of Samantha's body, her hands, arms, hips, facial expressions, etc will shut down. It seems like the feature is meant to replicate consent, however, the naming of it really doesn’t come close to any sort of thoughtful engagement with the critical issue.

While the feature might encourage some users to treat the robot with respect and care to avoid it going into dummy mode, other could arguably seek out the lifeless robot by abusing it. There are no consequences of using the robot when in dummy mode which seems to forfeit any of the reasons the feature was invented in the beginning.

However, this failure to understand what consent means is not a surprise if you look at the history of Dr. Santos and his overall rhetoric around sex. Santos says he invented Samantha in the first place because his wife was unable to fulfill his sexual desires and his current relationship with the sex-doll Samantha has saved his long-term marriage.

“For me, humans are not enough,” he told The Sun earlier this year. “I need sex some times of the day that my wife doesn’t want to.” He believes women and men “view sex in a very different way” saying that men want more sex and they are also interested in women that are desperate to have sex with men.

Sex robot impact still unknown

Sex robots are still a new idea and so any long terms effects of their effects haven’t been able to be done yet, however initial evidence says that they don’t have much of a positive impact on sexuality generally. Experts say that there is no evidence yet that sex dolls curb sex trafficking, or promote healthier sexual practices, which their proponents claim.

In fact, many believe that sex robots are harmful as they place an emphasis on conventional body types and attractiveness. Santos sells his sex dolls for a cool $7000 USD. the latest version includes non-toxic skin material and “reduced smell.”