KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 13 - Malaysian police have warned organisers against proceeding with the international “Love and Sex with Robots” conference that was to be held this November in Johor, saying the event is illegal and inappropriate for local culture.
Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar also said today that it was “ridiculous” that the organisers had thought it suitable to hold such an event in Malaysia.
“I want to warn the organisers, don’t be mengarut (ridiculous). Don’t try to do something abnormal, we will take action.
“It’s already an offence in Malaysia to have anal sex, what more intercourse with robots,” he told reporters this afternoon.
The police chief also emphasised that there “was nothing scientific about the event”, adding that the police would not allow it to go on as it was against Malaysian culture.
“Don’t try to organise events like that in Malaysia. It’s not our culture. We can take action against the organiser if they choose to hold the event,” he said.
Khalid further warned if the organisers decided to go ahead with the programme from November 16 to 19 despite his warning, he would take action even if no police report is lodged.
“There is no need for a report, we will take action. There is a lot of laws that we can use. We will see what they organise and then take action accordingly,” he added.
Australian portal news.com.au reported earlier this month that academics will gather in Malaysia for a “Love and Sex with Robots” conference this November to dissect the legal, ethical and moral issues on the topic.
The second international congress on “Love and Sex with Robots” (LSR) will be chaired by City University London’s Prof Adrian Cheok and Intelligent Toys Limited’s chief executive officer Dr David Levy, the news site said.
A check by Malay Mail Online on the congress’ website revealed that LSR 2015 will be held on November 16 in the Black Box and White Box arts complex in Medini Mall in Johor’s Iskandar economic region, next to the state’s Legoland Malaysia attraction.
The planned discussion topics listed on the website include robot emotions, humanoid robots, clone robots, entertainment robots, robot personalities, teledildonics and intelligent electronic sex hardware.
Various approaches to this topic including that of the gender, philosophical, sociological, psychological approaches are expected to be discussed, along with robo-ethics.
The congress is said to be part of the Advances in Computer Entertainment Technology 2015 Conferences, while the website also features the logos of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and the SIGCHI society for human-technology and human-computer interaction.
The website also features the logo of Tourism Malaysia’s “Malaysia Year of Festivals 2015” (MYFEST) campaign that carries the theme of “Endless Celebrations”, but the link provided to it is defunct.
