Woke university funded by Epstein discussed giving 'child sex robots' to pedophiles

Daily Mail​

19-07-2025

A leading university previously funded by disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein hosted a panel discussing the use of 'child sex robots ' to treat pedophiles.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)'s Media Lab ran the discussion in July 2016.
The panel discussed pedophilia as an 'affliction' that could be treated with 'child sex robots,' an inevitable invention to the hit the market one day, according to the discussion.
The conference discussing the controversial topic occurred around the time that the then-MIT Media Lab Director Joi Ito exchanged frequent communications with Epstein.
Epstein was found to have made ten donations to the institution, totaling $850,000, and claimed to have organized donations worth millions of dollars by others, a 2020 report found.
The financier was a convicted pedophile who died in his cell while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges in 2019.
A transcript of the panel's discussion raised questions surrounding the morality of sexual robotics, specifically surrounding pedophiles and 'child-size sex robots'.
It further discussed how ethical the use of robots in child-like form was to research, or control and maybe even cure the urges of a pedophile.
'This question of normalization also raises this question of, if people are regularly relieving urges with child robots, is that also a normalization of behavior?' one panelist, former MIT Center for Civic Media Director Ethan Zuckerman said.
'And is that a danger that by normalizing that behavior, regularizing that behavior, that this becomes less of a taboo and in some sense this actually may become more dangerous in terms of pedophilia acceptance?'
The panel further discussed the research element of using such robotics for the betterment of sexual deviants.
One panelist, MIT Graduate Program in Science Writing Associate Director Christina Couch, even compared such potential research to results found in studies conducted using virtual reality for those who suffer, or have suffered, from sexual trauma or PTSD.
'It's worth mentioning that virtual reality is also being used to study and treat people who are victims of sexual trauma, as well. So this is not a one-way street,' Couch said.
'So when we talk about amplifying research methods, it's not just for offenders. Those types of applications can also, in some cases, be used to actually help victims as well.'
Couch also said it would not be 'tremendously crazy' that people could 'use this type of technology to actually change behavior within pedophiles'.
'It's certainly a thing that is worth looking into,' she added.
The panel discussed how ethical the use of robots in child-like form was to research, or control and maybe even cure the urges of a pedophile
The panel further discussed how ethical the use of robots in child-like form was to research, or control and maybe even cure the urges of a pedophile
MIT Media Lab Director Joi Ito has since apologized for his relationship with Epstein.
Ito accepted money from Epstein for the lab as well as his private venture capital funds, and was also found to have visited his properties, including the island of Little St. James, the Wall Street Journal reported.
In 2019, Ito issued an apology statement regarding his relationship with Epstein.
'I want you to know that in all of my interactions with Epstein, I was never involved in, never heard him talk about, and never saw any evidence of the horrific acts that he was accused of,' he wrote.
'Regrettably, over the years, the Lab has received money through some of the foundations that he controlled. I knew about these gifts and these funds were received with my permission. I also allowed him to invest in several of my funds which invest in tech startup companies outside of MIT.'
Ito vowed to raise the equivalent amount of funds donated to the lab by Epstein himself and direct the money to non-profits that 'focus on supporting survivors of trafficking.'
But Epstein's relationship with MIT predates Ito, who was introduced to him in 2013 by former Media Lab Advisory Council member Linda Stone. Epstein was also close to the lab's co-founder Marvin Minsky.
'As you might know, I was very close to Marvin Minsky for quite a long time [and] I funded some of Marvin's projects,' Epstein told Science Magazine in 2017.
The 2020 report further found that Epstein had visited the MIT campus multiple times, and the lab's director had thought over inviting the convicted pedophile to one of its conferences in the same month as the panel discussing parahelia.
In July of 2016, the only conference set to be hosted by the lab, according to its website, was the one on sexual deviance and 'child sex robots'.
Epstein's visits to the MIT campus occurred at least nine times between 2013 and 2017, sometimes bringing 'assistants on some visits' who were young women, the report stated.
In a 2017 interview with Science Magazine, Epstein said that his support for the university stemmed from his gravitation toward 'rebels who don't fit in'.
'The MIT Media Lab is a good example,' he said. 'I would say 25% of the kids there are autistic, on the spectrum. They don't really work in groups...It's my natural bent to move toward the maverick and rebels who don't fit in.'
The university's close workings with Epstein come to light again as the public continues to call for the release of The Epstein Files.
On Friday, Attorney General Pam Bondi filed a pair of motions to release highly-secretive grand jury testimony from the Epstein case.
The move came after nearly two full weeks of President Donald Trump's MAGA base demanded the administration make public all details of the investigation into the disgraced financier and convicted child sex offender.
The DOJ also filed a motion in the case against Epstein's longtime associate and friend Ghislaine Maxwell, who is currently serving her sex trafficking sentence while also appealing her case to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Trump finally gave into the pressure on Thursday night when he instructed Bondi to make more materials public.
It came after the Wall Street Journal published details of a 'bawdy' 50th birthday card it said he allegedly sent to Epstein in 2003.
The president denies he wrote the letter and threatened to sue the publication.