The affective relationship between humans and robots as a prospect for family law

Abstract

This is the beginning of a series of studies on the reflections of Artificial Intelligence on Family Law, specifically addressing the possibility of an emotional relationship between human beings and robots. Following the Concentration Area of Constitutionalism, Transnationality, and Legal Production and the Research Line of Constitutional Principles, Legal Politics, and Artificial Intelligence of the Stricto Sensu Graduate Program in Legal Science - PPCJ/UNIVALI, the objectives were (i) to introduce and contextualize the advances of Artificial Intelligence; (ii) to analyze the concept of family in Brazilian Law and new forms of social organization; and finally, (iii) to discuss the possibility of an emotional relationship between humans and robots being legally recognized as a family. It is concluded that, with the increasing pluralization of the family concept and the recognition of new forms of social organization, affection has become the main defining factor of family entities. Thus, if affection is sufficient, the presence of an emotional relationship between human beings and robots seems to have no obstacle to be recognized by the Brazilian Legal System. The Inductive Method is used in the Research Phase, the Cartesian Method in the Data Processing Phase, and the Inductive Logical Base in the Results Report.