KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 16 — The coming “Love and Sex with Robots” congress in Johor has now been branded illegal by the police but organisers claim they are unaware of the ban and even unsure which laws the event would be in violation of.

Professor Adrian David Cheok, one of those behind the November 16 conference to be held in Iskandar Malaysia, told Malay Mail Online that no authority has ordered him to call off the event so far.

“The IGP has not contacted us. Absolutely not... many authorities in Johor were very understanding about it and we had no issues with local Johor police, but we have yet to be directly contacted by the IGP,” Cheok said, referring to Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar who had on Tuesday declared the conference illegal.

“For now, let’s say we wait until we get any official notice or unofficially. So far no one has contacted us.”

Cheok, who is director of the Imagineering Institute in Johor’s Iskandar Malaysia and a chair Professor of pervasive computing in City University London, also said he was perplexed by the “illegal” label and the sudden fuss and attention in the media over the coming conference.

He insisted that the conference would touch on “nothing very exciting” to the general public, despite its title “Love and Sex with Robots”.

The event, Cheok added, would be like any other scientific conference.

“Nothing very exciting as all there would be are academic papers as to whether people may or may not have relationships with robots,” he said.

But since the event caught media attention, Cheok said his group has worked closely with the authorities and even removed anything that could sound remotely undesirable in its promotional materials.

A check on the conference website showed that “Love and Sex with Robots” is now referred to by its acronym instead, and is called the “Second International Conference on LSR”.

Asked why organisers chose Malaysia to hold the conference, Cheok said it was due to the country’s achievements in science and technology, and the burgeoning of more creative industries, especially in Iskandar Malaysia.

“It would be a real shame if we shifted to Singapore, as it would give a wrong message as if we are saying that Singapore is much more free than Malaysia when Malaysia is a fine and democratic country.

“We don’t want to cause any trouble... but if it is really illegal then I guess we just have to shut it down and move it elsewhere or postpone it to another year, to another country,” he added.

The conference entered the spotlight here earlier this month when Australian portal news.com.au published an article about the event that was to be held November 16 at the  Black Box and White Box arts complex in Medini Mall, Johor.

In the event website, the list of topics to be discussed included robot emotions, humanoid robots, clone robots, entertainment robots, robot personalities, teledildonics and intelligent electronic sex hardware.

Iskandar Regional Development Authority (IRDA) has since issued a statement to say that it does not support the conference.

The Tourism Ministry has also distanced itself from it, and even accused the organisers of wrongfully lifting its logo for the Malaysia Year of Festivals 2015 to promote the event.

Asked to respond, Cheok admitted to the mistake but said his crew had not meant to create any controversy.