The keynote speakers for the 2025 Love & Sex With Robots conference in Montreal have been announced, with academics as well as ‘artificial companion’ community members set to take the mic.
The tenth incarnation of the event, which will feature talks and presentations about sex robot technology and issues, is set to take place on August 15-17 at Université du Québec in Montreal.
One keynote speaker will be Dr Nicola Döring, professor of media psychology and media resign at Germany’s Technische Universität Ilmenau. Her research focuses on subjects including digital media and communication technology, plus interpersonal communication with emphasis on sexuality.
Döring has published work covering sex robots, online sexual activities, sexting and the implications of AI for human sexuality. She works in the sexual technology field for Current Sexual Health Reports journal, published by Springer.
In 2024 Döring co-authored a review paper called The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Human Sexuality: A Five-Year Literature Review 2020–2024. The review looked at the rise of people using AI companion and adult content chatbots for sexual and romantic intimacy. It also uncovered a supposed lack of research into the ethics of AI porn, despite a fast-rise in the popularity of AI porn creation.
Another keynote speaker will be Marco Dehnert, assistant professor of communication and technology at the University of Arkansas.
Dehnert studies human-machine and human-AI communication. He has been published in journals such as Human-Machine Communication, Human Communication Research and the International Journal of Social Robotics.
In 2022 Dehnert published a paper in Human-Machine Communication called Sex With Robots and Human-Machine Sexualities: Encounters Between Human-Machine Communication and Sexuality Studies. The review brought together theorizing about human-machine communication and sexuality studies.
A keynote speech at the conference will also be given by Adam and Lara Amelia, who are described as “community stakeholders” alongside the suggestion that an artificial companion may be involved in the talk.
The event will not be live-streamed, but videos of the presentations will be made available after the conference to those buying a ‘post-conference access’ ticket, which costs CA$99 (US$72). Tickets to attend the conference in person start at CA$69 (US$50) and are being sold via Eventbrite’s website.
The conference was founded by David Levy, author of the book Love & Sex With Robots: The Evolution of Human-Robot Relationships. It attracts scientists, academics, sextech industry types, plus some ‘iDollators’: people generally enthusiastic about the prospect of having sex with robots and love dolls.
As well as conference founder Levy, the Love & Sex With Robots committee has included Simon Dubé, who has researched sex in space and is a fellow at the Kinsey Institute.
Organizers at this year’s conference have said that talks and panels may touch on topics including robot emotions, humanoid robots, robo-ethics, VR and AR, plus AI companions and chatbots.
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