London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Jul 10, 2025

Academics want sex robots capable of withdrawing consent. Even our fantasies aren't safe from the virtue police

Academics want sex robots capable of withdrawing consent. Even our fantasies aren't safe from the virtue police

Researchers are calling for sex robots to be programmed with the ability to give and rescind consent, lest their human 'partners' become rape-crazed maniacs. Apparently, they no longer trust us to distinguish fantasy from reality.
Suggesting sex bots can be used to "help nudge users towards virtuous (or vicious) behavior," university researchers Anco Peeters and Pim Haselager have called for the robots designed solely to fulfill human fantasies to come with built-in safeguards to ensure those fantasies don't exceed the bounds of social decency. Let your imagination run wild - within limits, of course.

"Consent culture" has long since lost touch with reality. Forcing first-year college students to sit through a "consent course" to learn something as obvious as "no means no" suggests admissions staff don't trust themselves not to pick a herd of rapists - it's equivalent to making students sit through a film on proper toilet hygiene. Must the virtue police impose their infantilization of the bedroom even on people's interaction with glorified computerized sex toys?

The pair admit that merely programming a sex robot to give or not give verbal consent hardly addresses the totality of the phenomenon - humans can be pressured into sex, or too intoxicated to understand what's going on, both scenarios that would be difficult if not impossible to replicate with AI. Yet they still suggest "compassion cultivating sex robots" could be used to teach sex ed to teenagers - as if "programming" young people to expect a predictable series of behaviors from their sexual partners isn't setting them up for disappointment, even shock when faced with the real thing.

The fear that acting out "vicious" sexual fantasies with an inanimate object will encourage humans to act them out in real life overlooks the fact that porn has been there, done that - and provided a far more disturbed view of sexuality than a robot ever could. Yet the ubiquity of porn hasn't transformed humanity into rapists, despite grotesque and sometimes downright disturbing content.

Pearl-clutching over the thought of people acting out rape fantasies with robots ignores the fact that they already have the rape fantasy. If people are really such slaves to their imaginations, how have they refrained from acting that fantasy out on humans before the robot came along?

If anything, the opportunity to act out their forbidden fantasy with a hot hunk of silicon makes it less likely a person will go looking for someone to rape in real life. And being turned down by a sex robot might push that person over the edge, leading them to seek revenge among the living. Who wouldn't throw their phone across the room if, asking Siri for directions, she refused to provide them? Sex robots - like any other AI-enabled device - are built to obey.

This urge to police what is essentially an act of high tech masturbation - for all their advanced programming, a sex robot is just a thing - is characteristic of a growing trend toward elite distrust of the mass imagination. The same puritanical urge to make sure no one thinks they're raping a robot wants to take violent films off the big screen, lest some viewer decide to pick up a gun. It assumes people are incapable of understanding and obeying social norms even with respect to something so obviously wrong as rape and murder - and that they would never conceive of committing such acts without fictional stimuli. Such an urge simultaneously demonizes and dismisses the imagination.

Programming sex robots to give and withdraw consent in order to stamp out the “normalization” of rape is a slippery slope that ends with the virtue police probing the population’s sexual fantasies, sifting through the thoughts recorded by an individual’s Neuralink (or Facebook thought-reading implant) in order to render those fantasies squeaky-clean and politically correct. And that future - one in which authorities have veto power over the imagination - is something no one should consent to.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Severe Heatwave Claims 2,300 Lives Across Europe
NVIDIA Achieves Historic Milestone as First Company Valued at $4 Trillion
Declining Beer Consumption Signals Cultural Shift in Germany
Linda Yaccarino Steps Down as CEO of X After Two Years
US Imposes New Tariffs on Brazilian Exports Amid Political Tensions
Azerbaijan and Armenia are on the brink of a historic peace deal.
Emails Leaked: How Passenger Luggage Became a Side Income for Airport Workers
Polish MEP: “Dear Leftists - China is laughing at you, Russia is laughing, India is laughing”
BRICS Expands Membership with Indonesia and Ten New Partner Countries
Weinstein Victim’s Lawyer Says MeToo Movement Still Strong
U.S. Enacts Sweeping Tax and Spending Legislation Amid Trade Policy Shifts
Football Mourns as Diogo Jota and Brother André Silva Laid to Rest in Portugal
Labour Expected to Withdraw Support for Special Needs Funding Model
Leaked Audio Reveals Tory Aide Defending DEI Record
Elon Musk Founds a Party Following a Poll on X: "You Wanted It – You Got It!"
London Stock Exchange Faces Historic Low in Initial Public Offerings
A new online platform has emerged in the United Kingdom, specifically targeting Muslim men seeking virgin brides
Trump Celebrates Independence Day with B-2 Flyover and Signs Controversial Legislation
Boris Johnson Urges Conservatives to Ignore Farage
SNP Ordered to Update Single-Sex Space Guidance Within Days
Starmer Set to Reject Calls for Wealth Taxes
Stolen Century-Old Rolls-Royce Recovered After Hotel Theft
Macron Presses Starmer to Recognise Palestinian State
Labour Delayed Palestine Action Ban Over Riot Concerns
Swinney’s Tax Comments ‘Offensive to Scots’, Say Tories
High Street Retailers to Enforce Bans on Serial Shoplifters
Music Banned by Henry VIII to Be Performed After 500 Years
Steve Coogan Says Working Class Is Being ‘Ethnically Cleansed’
Home Office Admits Uncertainty Over Visa Overstayer Numbers
JD Vance Questions Mandelson Over Reform Party’s Rising Popularity
Macron to Receive Windsor Carriage Ride in Royal Gesture
Labour Accused of ‘Hammering’ Scots During First Year in Power
BBC Head of Music Stood Down Amid Bob Vylan Controversy
Corbyn Eyes Hard-Left Challenge to Starmer’s Leadership
London Tube Trains Suspended After Major Fire Erupts Nearby
Richard Kemp: I Felt Safer in Israel Under Attack Than in the UK
Cyclist Says Police Cited Human Rights Act for Riding No-Handed
China’s Central Bank Consults European Peers on Low-Rate Strategies
AI Raises Alarms Over Long-Term Job Security
Saudi Arabia Maintains Ties with Iran Despite Israel Conflict
Musk Battles to Protect Tesla Amid Trump Policy Threats
Air France-KLM Acquires Majority Stake in Scandinavian Airlines
UK Educators Sound Alarm on Declining Child Literacy
Shein Fined €40 Million in France Over Misleading Discounts
Brazil’s Lula Visits Kirchner During Argentina House Arrest
Trump Scores Legislative Win as House Passes Tax Reform Bill
Keir Starmer Faces Criticism After Rocky First Year in Power
DJI Launches Heavy-Duty Coaxial Quadcopter with 80 kg Lift Capacity
U.S. Senate Approves Major Legislation Dubbed the 'Big Beautiful Bill'
Largest Healthcare Fraud Takedown in U.S. History Announced by DOJ
×