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As artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled social robots continue to enter our lifeworlds, we will need to grapple with challenges to assumptions about our relationship to and even with these technological objects. This essay works at the intersection of social robotics, legal studies, and human–machine communication to explore the concept of ownership in human–machine relations. In particular, we draw on more-than-human approaches to ask: To what extent should (need) we retire the concept of ownership in the context of AI-enabled social robots? With a particular emphasis on companion robots, we explore alternatives to the ownership modality by investigating concepts such as personhood, a degrees-of-relationship perspective, and a situational approach to understanding human–robot relationships. The goal is to re-imagine human–robot relationships beyond legal confinements by engaging a pragmatic perspective that supplements existing philosophical approaches. We conclude the paper by discussing practical implications of our proposed perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article "The promise of monsters" explores the ethical and political implications of monsters in Mary Shelley's works, particularly "Frankenstein" and "The Last Man." It delves into the idea that monsters challenge and define the limits of human community, with Victor Frankenstein representing a moral failing and Lionel Verney in "The Last Man" existing outside ethics and politics. The text highlights how Shelley's narratives confront the terminal limits of human responsibility and community, ultimately delivering on the promise of monsters as a disruptive force in Western imaginations. [Extracted from the article]