"Digisexuals" are falling in love with -- and lusting for -- robots

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. 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.