‘Pregnancy Robots’ Could Give Birth to Human Children — A Sci-Fi Breakthrough in the Making 🤖👶

Just when you thought technology couldn’t get any weirder — people are marrying AI chatbots, and now robots may be able to literally give birth.

Reports out of China suggest that scientists are working on a humanoid robot with an artificial womb in its abdomen. The womb would receive nutrients through a hose and carry a fetus for about 10 months before delivering the baby. If all goes according to plan, the first prototype could debut as early as next year.

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How It Works (In Theory, Anyway)

The project aims to combine artificial womb technology — which is already fairly advanced — with humanoid robots, creating a surrogate-like machine that can carry a pregnancy from conception to delivery. Couples struggling with infertility could, in theory, hire a bot to carry their child for about 100,000 yuan ($19,200 CAD).

That’s a lot cheaper than hiring a human surrogate, which can run anywhere between $80,000 and $140,000 CAD.

But many questions remain:

• How exactly would the egg and sperm be fertilized and inserted?
• What would the “birth” process look like?
• And, perhaps most importantly… who’s in charge of naming rights?

The Big Debate

While the science may be groundbreaking, it’s also raising massive ethical and legal questions. What does parenthood look like when your baby was carried by a machine? Who regulates “bot wombs”? And what happens if one malfunctions?

Still, if the tech succeeds, the future could be one where little Betty is playing at recess with her friend… little Bot-ty.