Do robots have friends

Answer 1

We have as yet been unable to develop a robot with sentience, which would be a prerequisite for it displaying a preference in companionship. Therefore, while there are many millions of robots assisting mankind, none of them have "friends".

Of course, an alternate meaning of the question would be "Are there those who are 'friends' to the robots, in the way that some are 'friends' to the animals?"

The answer would still be no. Animals at least care on a certain level what happens to them. A 'friend' to animals then, makes sure to advocate for conditions in which the animal is what we might infer to be 'happy'. Or at least safe and unharmed.

However, robots do not even rise to the level of having feelings. There is nothing that any human can do that will let them be more or less happy. There isn't anything to be done to make them more or less 'safe' and 'unharmed', either. As inanimate objects, they are safe and unharmed whether they are in full operating order, or broken into bits, or melted down into slag.

So no one can be their 'friend' in any kind of way that has meaning.

Finally, there may be one possible exception. Various groups have participated in studying how to protect the rights of future robots - the kind who may be sentient. One might loosely regard them as 'friends' of robots, but only the future and hypothetical robots that may never be.