Every generation views technological advancement with skepticism. The first cars, airplanes, iPhones and other technologies brought a host of benefits while changing society forever. Most people would argue that these advancements were good, and some argue that the relentless pursuit of technology must be prioritized for the sake of the common good. Yet at what point does technology in itself become bad? When does the morality (or immorality) of the process outweigh the benefits?

In vitro fertilization technology has made this question more pertinent than ever, especially now as the New York Times reports that robots are successfully creating human babies through IVF. Last month, the New York Times published a piece detailing how at least 20 babies have been conceived and born through a new automated process of IVF. The process involves AI robots that detect and collect the most “robust” sperm, mix the necessary chemicals for an egg to “stay viable,” and “reproducibly fertilize an egg, initiating the moment of conception.”

The piece describes a startup called Conceivable Life Sciences, which developed the Aura system: the automation of the manual IVF steps from egg freezing to embryo creation. Conceivable was co-founded in 2022 by Mexican fertility doctor Alejandro Chávez-Badiola and entrepreneur Alan Murray.

With $70 million from investors, Murray and Chavez-Badiola successfully replaced the 205 manual steps of the IVF process with an automated process involving “high-precision robotic arms” and other technologically impressive instruments. While impressive, however, the New York Times notes that the “array of robots” fertilizing embryos might be mistaken “for a smartphone assembly line, with sleek technology making the messiness of biology feel controlled and contained.”

The goal of these efforts, according to Chavez-Badiola, is to replace the “superstar” embryologists at IVF clinics across the country with an automated process that is successful 100% of the time. Unfortunately for Chavez-Badiola and Murray, however, the New York Times claims that none of the studies done by Conceivable and another company exploring the automation of IVF, Overture, have proved that “AI-enabled machines are markedly outperforming conventional IVF.”

Despite this, supporters are optimistic. The New York Times quotes David Sable, a Conceivable advisor and fertility investor, emphasizing the benefits of replacing humans with machines in the IVF process. The article implies that Sable, and likely his counterparts, views this automation of IVF as a way to eradicate global infertility, noting especially that this would be good for the “growing number of gay families and young women who want more choices or must freeze their eggs because of medical issues such as cancer.”

There is something eerily dystopian about this new venture into the robotic creation of human life. Rather than employing technology to discern the root causes of infertility, fertility doctors and embryologists such as Chavez-Badiola seem to be focused on profit-driven, flashy new technologies that dehumanize the human life they seek to create.

These methods of enabling the creation of human life should make any conscientious human squeamish. For example, Overture Life, another company seeking to automate IVF, has focused on building “palm-size” robotic boxes called DaVitri machines that are able to prepare eggs for freezing with a click of a button. These DaVitri machines are already being shipped to obstetricians around the world for use.

Murray, Gangeska, and Chavez-Badiola hope that this will enable more and more people around the world to have children. Yet at what cost?

Obviously there are many religious concerns with the process of IVF, which separates the unitive and procreative aspects of sex, thereby reducing the formation of new human life to a mere commodity. There are also the pro-life concerns about the discarding of embryos that are deemed faulty or the freezing of them indefinitely. Even putting these objections aside, most people should be squeamish about soulless, automated robots becoming involved in the creation and formation of sacred human life.

The dystopian nature does seem to strike Linda, a woman who successfully participated in Overture Life’s test pilot and now has a two-and-a-half-year-old daughter.

“When you see her, you’re like, ‘Wow, she’s so normal!’” Linda told the New York Times, “I don’t even remember that my daughter is made with a machine.”