--- title: "“Digisexuals” Are Falling In Love With — And Lusting For — Robots" description: "A growing group of people identify themselves as digisexuals — a provocative term for people who are attracted to robots and artificial intelligences." date: "2019-01-20" modified: "2019-01-20" authors: - name: "Jon Christian" job_title: "Executive Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jonc" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/digisexuals-love-lust-robots" categories: - "Robotics" - "Robots and Machines" tags: - "artificial intelligence" - "digisexuality" - "sex robots" - "the digest" --- # “Digisexuals” Are Falling In Love With — And Lusting For — Robots ![A growing group of people identify themselves as "digisexuals" — a provocative term for people who are attracted to robots and artificial intelligences.]() *\Image: Realbotix/Esaias Tan/Victor Tangermann\* ## Digisexuals Remember the French woman who [claimed she was engaged]() to a 3D printed robot she had designed, or the Chinese engineer who [performed a marriage ceremony]() with a robot wife? In a fascinating new story, the *New York Times* [reports that]() a growing group of people identify themselves as "digisexuals" — a provocative term for people who are attracted to robots and artificial intelligences, rather than humans with flesh bodies and biological mind. ## Dirty Computer Academics have started to grapple with the concept of digisexuality, the *Times* reports. In 2017, researchers at the University of Manitoba and the University of Wisconsin-Stout [published a paper]() that explored that rise of the concept — and the technologies that enable it, from automated sex toys to robotic sex dolls that cost tens of thousands of dollars. "What they’ve been into is sex tech, toys they can control with their tech devices, that attach to their penis or their vulva," said Markie Twist, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Stout and co-author of the paper, in an interview with the *Times*. "They haven’t had contact with humans, and really don’t have any interest in sex with people. This is what they want to be doing, and if they could afford a sex robot, they would." ## Fringe Group The *Times* report — which comes alongside [more disturbing coverage]() from the paper about people [brutally attacking robots]() — includes a whip-smart analysis of the trend that contextualizes the notion of digisexuality on a spectrum of behaviors that are already considered normal. "Whether the notion is absurd, inevitable or offensive, it raises more than a few questions," *Times* reporter Alex Williams wrote of the phenomenon. "For starters, in a world where sex toys that respond and give feedback and artificial-intelligence-powered sex robots are inching toward the mainstream, are digisexuals a fringe group, destined to remain buried in the sexual underground? Or, in a culture permeated with online pornography, sexting and Tinder swiping, isn’t everyone a closet digisexual?" **READ MORE:** [Do You Take This Robot …]() \[*The New York Times*\] ***More on sex robots:*** [We Have No Idea What Having Sex With Robots Might Do to Us]() ## Author I'm responsible for editing, assigning, and scouting at Futurism, as well as occasionally writing for the site. That work involves keeping an eye on a wide range of narratives and issues, but over the past few years I've become increasingly interested in how AI is shaping the future of media, the web, and information itself. My day-to-day often involves collaborating on reporting and commentary projects bylined by my colleagues, but I try to find time to do my own reporting as well; stories I've broken for Futurism have been cited by publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New Yorker, Wired, Ars Technica, New York Magazine, the Columbia Journalism Review, Bloomberg, and more. I grew up in Southern Vermont and attended Vanderbilt University. Prior to Futurism, I contributed to outlets including the Boston Globe, Vice, Wired, Slate, the Atlantic, the Outline, Ars Technica and more, and did stints in farming and food service. I currently live in Brooklyn, New York, and in my free time I enjoy pinball, word games, cycling, running, and music production. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()