WITH MALE sex robots set to hit the market this year, one expert is warning of a potential dark side to the tech.

Lifelike droids from Californian startup Realbotix pack chiselled six-packs, bionic penises and an AI personality, and are expected to sell for upwards of £8,000 in the UK.

2 Who's to blame if a sex robot rapes a woman? The programmer, according to a robotics professor Credit: Realdoll

But just like their female bot counterparts before them, the new male machines are raising troubling ethical and legal questions of their own.

One scenario being pondered is if a robot has sex with a woman who hasn't consented. Does that count as rape? And who should be punished?

Noel Sharkey, professor of robotics and AI at the University of Sheffield, claims the legal risk lies with the bot's programmers.

“A male sex robot, like any robot, has no desires of its own,” he told the Daily Star.

“These are inanimate devices run by computer programming.

“Thus if a male gendered sex robot were to rape a woman...the police would need to hunt down the programmer.”

With no way of knowing how the nascent tech will be used by women, the shocking scenario remains a completely hypothetical one.

However, female sex robots aimed at men have already come under fire for objectifying women.

2 Henry, a sex robot aimed at women, could retail for up to £11,000 Credit: Realbotix

One manufacturer offers a robot with a ‘Frigid Farrah’ setting which tells users ‘No, No!’ before succumbing to a sexual advance.

In a new documentary titled Sex Robots and Us, Sharkey predicts that the machines could "change humanity completely".

"We’re just doing all this stuff with machines because we can," he said.

"Some people have suggested that sex robots create an attitude of ‘too-easy’ sex which is always available.

"This could take meaning out of our lives and turn us into zombies."

According to recent YouGov data, 49% of Americans think having sex with the robots will become common practice within the next 50 years – with one in four men (24%) suggesting they'd think about taking an automated lover.

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Women, on the other hand, were far less open to the idea – just 9% of females said they'd consider getting frisky with a robot.

Meanwhile, over a third of Brits (36%) recently told Now TV that they'd be up for having sex with a droid, with 40% saying they would not consider the sexual act cheating.

Last year, the European Parliament proposed recognising robots as legal persons, a measure that the EU believes will make it easier to figure out who's liable when robots go rogue.

But the move was recently denounced in an open letter signed by 156 experts (including Sharkey), who believe it will let manufacturers off the hook if their creations screw up.

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