David Levy, University of Maastricht in the south-east of the country said, "... When there are robots that have also emotions, personality, consciousness. They can talk to you, they can make you laugh. They can ... Say they love you just like a human would say 'I love you', and say it as though they mean it ..."
But to build robots as real partners would take a bit longer, with conversation skills being the main obstacle for developers.
Scientists were working on artificial personality, emotion and consciousness, said Levy, and some robots already appear lifelike.
"But for loving relationships - that is something completely different.
In loving relationships there are many more things that are important. And the most difficult of all is conversation," said the author.
