Sex robot conference cancelled over backlash to proposed speech by Steve Bannon

'Anti-free speech' campaigners to blame, organisers say

An academic conference on sex with robots has been cancelled due to a backlash against a proposed speech by Steve Bannon, Donald Trump‘s former adviser.

Mr Bannon had been due to speak at the International Conference on Advances in Computer Entertainment (ACE) this month in Montana, but protests from activists and fellow speakers forced the cancellation of the event, its organisers said.

A linked conference being held alongside ACE – the International Congress on Love and Sex with Robots (LSR) – was also cancelled over the outcry, a statement on its website said.

“Since the arrangements being made for both conferences were inextricably intertwined, we have had no alternative but to postpone the congress on Love and Sex with Robots,” organiser David Levy wrote.

The sex robot gathering has been “postponed” until January 2020, when it will be held in Las Vegas at the same time as a pornography convention, he added.

Mr Bannon, a former editor of the right-wing Breitbart News website who served as White House chief strategist from January to August last year, was one the of key the architects behind Mr Trump’s 2016 election agenda.

He had been due deliver the keynote address at ACE.

ACE’s organisers blamed what they called an “anti-free speech ‘fascist style mob’” and claimed the behaviour of people opposed to Mr Bannon’s presence was “very similar” to campaigns of book-burning in Nazi Germany.

The decision to cancel, taken in mid-November, was “a tragic moment in the history of human civilization”, they said in an unsigned rant on the conference website.

The conference appeared to have been beset by problems in 2018, its 15th year, with three members of its steering committee stepping down over changes to its structure, including the decision to “co-locate” it with LSR.

Yoram Chisik, one of those members, wrote in an online statement that “none of us were consulted or notified about this, nor did we give our consent to it”.

ACE founder and chairman Adrian Cheok personally attacked Mr Chisik on Twitter over the falling-out.

Mr Bannon’s planned presence at other conventions and festivals has sparked backlash previously.

The New Yorker magazine was forced to disinvite Mr Bannon after complaints from other headline guests at its 2018 festival.