KUALA LUMPUR: The police have declared the international "Love and Sex with Robots" conference, scheduled to be held in Iskandar Malaysia, as illegal.
Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar said the organiser of the event has been warned not to proceed with the event that was supposed to be held from Nov 16 to 19.
"It's already an offence in Malaysia to have anal sex, what more intercourse with robots. Don't try to be ridiculous," he said at the press conference at the Sime Darby Convention Centre on Tuesday.
He added that there was "nothing scientific about having sex with machines."
"It's not our culture. We can take action against the organiser if they choose to hold the event," he said.
Last Monday, the organiser had updated its website at loveandsexwithrobots.org that the event was supposed to be held from Nov 16 to 19 in Iskandar Johor. However, no local or international contact number was listed and e-mails to the two speakers at the event were also unanswered.
A click on a link on the website brings the visitors to another webpage named Advances in Computer Entertainment Conference, on which the location of the event and the Tourism Ministry logo are posted.
In a statement, Iskandar Regional Development Authority (IRDA) said they neither supported nor promoted the event.
Meanwhile, co-chair of the event, City University London Prof Adrian David had on Saturday clarified that the workshop was not intended to promote any form of sexual relationship between humans and machines.
He said it was only an academic discussion among members of the academia.
He was also quoted saying the workshop was one of four that were scheduled to be held during the Advances in Computer Entertainment Conference (ACE 2015).
The other workshops planned were animal computer interaction, multi-model computer sensing and a children’s workshop on how to use computer games to teach