Would You Let A Robot Perform Your Wedding Ceremony?

They mow our lawns, assemble our cars and act adorably harebrained in our movies, but do we really want robots to marry us?

On Sunday in Japan (where else?) a four-foot tall seated robot named “I-Fairy” with flashing eyes and plastic pigtails presided over its first wedding in central Tokyo. With a man hiding behind a black curtain a few feet away clicking commands into a computer, “I-Fairy” ordered the groom to lift the bride’s veil in an electronic voice and threw its arms in the air as the newlyweds kissed.

The Associated Press reported that the robot’s manufacturer, Kokoro, whose stated corporate goal is to “touch the hearts of people,” is also behind giant dinosaur robots and lifelike androids that can smile and laugh; it is also a subsidiary of the company that owns the rights to the Hello Kitty brand. The bride works at Kokoro and she said the ceremony was fun and that the Japanese people think of robots as their friends, though her husband, a professor of robotics, lamented that “I-Fairy,” which retails for $68,000, was not quite "clever" enough. Three of the robots, which have 18 degrees of motion in its arms and mostly repeat preprogrammed movements and sounds, are available for use in the U.S.

WATCH