Epstein-funded MIT lab hosted panel that discussed 'child-size sex robots'

A lengthy MIT Media Lab panel on "Forbidden Research" featured a segment on studying pedophiles and whether or not "child-size sex robots" should be provided to them.

The discussion lasted about nine hours when it was webcast in 2016, with the after-lunch portion of the event dedicated to a discussion on the study of pedophilia.

The discussion was uncovered as the saga surrounding deceased child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein is ongoing, with the public clamoring for more information about the shadowy elite financier's life. The topic of the panel was revealed to be even more disturbing considering the lab's financial ties to Epstein.

'Courts don't know what to do with these because no child has been harmed in making them.'

Around the five-hour mark of the event, Dr. Kate Darling took the stage to start the off-putting discussion.

"Once child-size sex robots hit the market, which they will, is the use of these robots going to be a healthy outlet for people to express these sexual urges and thus protect children and reduce child abuse? Or is the use of these robots going to encourage, normalize, propagate that behavior and endanger children in these people’s environments?" Darling asked.

The Swiss doctor works in robotics and is a research scientist at MIT. She also holds the position of lead for ethics and society at the Boston Dynamics AI Institute, per her website.

Darling went on to say that "we just don't know the answer" to whether or not to let pedophiles use the "sex robots," mostly due to the restrictions around what that research might look like.

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"I understand why people want reporting requirements," Darling continued. "But I do wonder whether they're doing more harm than good in these cases. Because as much as people want these sexual urges — the urges, not the act — to be a moral failing, they are a psychological issue, and if we really care about helping children, we might need to be a little bit more pre-emptive about this."

While the panel seemed to recognize the discomfort their discussion would cause, it cannot be ignored that the MIT lab had received funding from Epstein during the same years it took place.

In 2019, Joi Ito, former director of the MIT Media Lab, admitted that the lab had "received money through some of the foundations" that Epstein controlled.

Ito resigned following a blockbuster New Yorker report detailing internal evidence that Ito and staff members accepted Epstein's funds and worked to hide their source even though Epstein had been blacklisted by MIT. Epstein was also alleged to have been consulted about the use of funds and utilized as an intermediary between the lab and other wealthy donors.

Ito said he had taken $525,000 in funding from Epstein for the media lab, with MIT receiving $800,000 in total from Epstein over a period of 20 years.

"I vow to raise an amount equivalent to the donations the Media Lab received from Epstein and will direct those funds to nonprofits that focus on supporting survivors of trafficking," Ito added at the time.

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The Media Lab on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2023. Simon Simard/Bloomberg via Getty Images

MIT responded to a request for comment from the Daily Caller and said it did not wish to comment on "the individually held and freely expressed views of any particular community member. The views of any individual community member are their own."

The school said it has also taken a "number of steps" to change its gift acceptance and donation processes and has been donating to "four nonprofits supporting survivors of sexual abuse."

Dr. Darling did not respond to Blaze News' request for comment.

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