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University officials didn’t respond when asked if grant is funded by tax dollars
The University of Arkansas did not say whether tax dollars are being used to pay for one of its professors, Marco Dehnert, to attend the International Congress on Love and Sex with Robots in August.
Dehnert, a professor of communications, received a 2026 Gender Studies Faculty Research Support grant through the university’s Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences this spring to present research at the conference in Montreal, Canada.
Dehnert’s talk is titled “Hearts, hardware, and human enhancement: Transhumanist orientation and the future of relationships,” according to the conference schedule.
The university’s Gender Studies Program provides grant recipients with $1,500 to support expenses. The university announcement does not specify whether the funds originate from state appropriations, private donations, student fees, or other sources.
The College Fix reached out to the director of the Gender Studies Program twice and the public university’s media relations team asking about the funding source, but neither responded.
Dehnert declined to comment on his research or his participation in the conference, telling The Fix, “I won’t be able to respond to your inquiry due to time constraints.”
One of Dehnert’s studies, published in the Journal of Sex Research this past January, focused on the “reciprocal” relationship that can exist between a human and a robot.
“Findings indicated that participants…perceived a seemingly reciprocal form of care with their [sex] dolls and robots, marked by a high degree of controllability and dominance,” according to the study.
The “International Conference on Love and Sex with Robots” describes itself as an interdisciplinary academic event exploring the future of human relationships with artificial intelligence and robotic technology. Topics include emotional intimacy with robots, AI companions, robotic sexuality, and “teledildonics.”
Keynote speakers include employees of the Kinsey Institute, a research institution founded by Alfred Kinsey, a controversial professor known for his involvement in child sex experiments.
Some of the presentations cover topics such as “Creative porn work,” “Here there be dragons (and also dildos): Motivations for using fantasy and animal-shaped sex toys,” “Love and sex with (grief)bots: Psychological tensions in AI-mediated mourning,” and “Is it cheating if it’s AI?”
One presentation, suggesting robots experience human emotions, is titled, “What do robots desire? Considering the perspective of humanoid robots.”
According to the conference website, researchers gather to discuss how emerging technologies may reshape concepts of “love, companionship, and sexuality.” Organizers describe the event as a forum for researchers, ethicists, and technologists to examine the “evolving relationships between humans and robots.”
Other presenters at the conference include scholars from SUNY Maritime College in New York, University of Montreal, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel, and the University of Quebec Montreal.
Ethics of human-AI ‘relationships’
More broadly, the issue has sparked social and ethical debates about the potential benefits and downfalls of human “relationships” with AI, as well as broader understandings of humanity itself.
The impact on young adults especially is a key focus. According to a 2024 survey by the Institute for Family Studies and YouGov, one in four young adults “believe that AI has the potential to replace real-life romantic relationships.”
In other words, “AI partners” are being seen as a legitimate substitute for “real-life romance” — and that’s troubling, according to Michael Toscano, a senior fellow and director of the institute’s Family First Technology Initiative.
Notably, that same 2024 research also found “that the vast majority of Americans are opposed to such an industry like this,” Toscano told The College Fix in a recent phone interview.
He declined to comment about the upcoming academic conference due to his limited knowledge of the event. But Toscano said society should be concerned about the motives of the Silicon Valley companies creating AI “relationship” programs.
“We should not ignore the exploitative nature of what is being proposed here,” he told The Fix.
Robotics aside, what these companies are after is people’s data, Toscano said. “And they’re grooming users to put them in an erotic relationship so that way they can share their data.”
What’s more, these companies are creating a “false image of a person” and drawing people into a false relationship, he said.
“At the same time, you could see why people are turning to what everyone knows in their bones is false. It’s because young people are having such extraordinary trouble actually accessing the real thing,” he told The Fix.
But society’s problems with isolation can’t be solved with humanoids, young adults need real human relationships, Toscano said.
“We should be blocking the false versions, and we should be doing everything in our power to help them access the right version, the real thing. I think our future depends on it,” he said.
Editor’s note: Assistant editor Micaiah Bilger contributed to this report.
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