Thanks for an excellent article; I've ordered the book! My feeling is that in the USA at least, provided corporations can make money from it, any robot activity that induces people to spend more money will be perfectly legal - because the more money a corporation makes, the more it can contribute to politicians' campaign funds. As for robots working in care homes, this will on balance be a very good thing. Robots won't abuse helpless elderly patients because they're irritating, smell bad, and have the same accident over and over again. Human care-givers tend to become desensitized in order to cope emotionally, and the consequence is they often treat their patients very badly indeed.