Jamie F
The Love & Sex With Robots conference, which brings together prominent figures in the world of sex robot technology, academia and philosophy, is set to return to being a ‘hybrid’ in-person and online event in 2024.
The annual Canada-based event switched to an online conference during the Covid pandemic due to travel and lockdown restrictions, and remained so for last year’s incarnation. However, the 9th International Congress on Love and Sex with Robots can be attended in-person in Montréal as well as online.
The event will be hosted at Université du Québec in Montréal (UQAM) on August 24-25, 2024. Four keynote speakers have been announced.
The first is Delphine DiTecco, who is studying for a law PhD at Carleton University. DiTecco researches the intersections of technology, sexuality and law. Her dissertation research looks at robot technologies and sex worker rights, and how the latter can be protected and enhanced.
Marriage, family and sex therapist Dr Marty Klein will also give a keynote speech. He’s a board member of the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality and wrote the 2006 book America’s War on Sex: The Continuing Attack on Law, Lust and Liberty.
Other speakers include Krystelle Shaughnessy associate professor of psychology at the University of Ottowa’s School of Psychology, and Karma: a doll community member who talks on dolls being a part of her wellbeing as a trans woman.
The conference was founded by David Levy, author of the 2007 book Love and Sex With Robots.
While sex robots often feature in media coverage and sensationalist tabloid headlines, they remain a relatively niche part of the sextech world, with high-end sex robots often costing many thousands of dollars and not tending to have particularly sophisticated AI or ‘talking’ ability.
The 2023 incarnation of the Love & Sex With Robots conference shifted much of the focus from hardware to software and AI, featuring a talk called How To Make Love To A Chatbot: The Thinking Human’s Guide to AI Erotic Roleplay.
The niche sex robot industry hasn’t made hugely significant progression in the past few years, with most sex robots still, essentially, resembling humanoid love dolls sometimes with basic tinny stock speech capabilities. Products such as the high-end RealDoll sex robots have a niche fanbase, but it is perhaps the future integration of sophisticated AI chatbot technology being fused with such products that could usher in a more mainstream breakthrough for the sector.
AI is expected to feature prominently in the 2024 edition of the Love & Sex With Robots conference. Organizers have given some further suggested topics for abstracts, although they have said that proposals are not limited to their suggestions.
They mention robot emotions, clone robots, teledildonics, robotics and electronic sex startups, roboethics, feminism and interactionism as potential topics.
The 2023 keynote speakers for the conference were Dr. Amanda Gesselman, associate director of The Kinsey Institute, and Dr. Kenneth Hanson, assistant professor at the University of Wyoming.
You can sign up for email updates at the conference’s website.
