A Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) lab previously funded in part by Jeffrey Epstein hosted a panel where attendees openly discussed the idea of using “child-size sex robots” to treat pedophiles.
The MIT Media Lab’s July 2016 conference on research questions without “social and moral constraints” included a panel discussion arguing that pedophilia should not be seen as a “moral failing” but rather a medical condition and that the development of “child-size sex robots” is an inevitability, a transcript and video of the event shows.
The Media Lab’s ties to the disgraced financier span a 17-year period in which the lab readily accepted Epstein’s cash donations and facilitated introductions with its scientists on-campus and off, according to a 2020 fact-finding report commissioned by the university. The lab’s director contemplated inviting Epstein to one of its conferences in July 2016, the report states, the same month of the conference where the child-size sex robots were proposed, the only conference the lab hosted that month, according to its website.
“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?” said one panelist. “We can’t research it [because of reporting restrictions]. 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.”
“The issue of normalization, as you brought up. How does that change of society as a whole, and the acceptance of certain kinds of behavior?” another panelist said, while warning about the possibility of the robots being diverted to a black market for entertainment. “The notion of studying sexual deviance and actual normal humans interacting with these things can provide the basis for a deeper understanding of how that operates.”
The previously unreported panel comes to light as the public’s gaze once again fixates on Epstein’s ties to academia, Wall Street and government amid the Trump administration’s move to close the book on investigating the matter any further. The Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation announced in a July 7 memo that they had uncovered no “client list” and would not make further disclosures, spurring incredulity among the president’s supporters and driving a fracture between U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino. The memo also stated “Epstein harmed over 1,000 victims.”
MIT did not answer questions from the Daily Caller News Foundation about whether the MIT Media Lab had considered inviting Epstein to the conference where “child-size sex robots” were discussed.
“The panel referenced occurred nearly a decade ago, and we can’t comment on individual programming decisions a department made. Thousands of events take place on our campus each year,” said MIT spokesperson Kimberly Allen in a statement to the DCNF. “As a general practice, we also don’t comment on the individually held and freely expressed views of any particular community member. The views of any individual community member are their own.”
“Following the independent investigation and report you reference, MIT took a number of steps, including institutional reforms to our gift acceptance processes and donating to four nonprofits supporting survivors of sexual abuse,” Allen said.
MIT shuttered its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) office on May 28 amid President Donald Trump’s crackdown on the Ivy League. But MIT has previously received congressional scrutiny for research on censoring what researchers deemed to be “dangerous digital content” aimed at American conservatives. (RELATED: MIT Bans Diversity Statements For Faculty Hires)
A slide from a presentation at the 2016 “Forbidden Research” conference hosted by MIT Media Lab.
The July 2016 conference coincided with frequent contact between Epstein and the Media Lab through then-MIT Media Lab Director Joi Ito, who accepted money from Epstein for the media lab and for his private venture capital funds. Ito also visited Epstein’s properties, including the island of Little St. James. Epstein donated $525,000 to the lab from 2013 to 2017, well after his 2008 conviction for soliciting prostitution from someone under the age of 18, according to the 2020 fact-finding report.
Ito did not respond to a request for comment. In a 2019 public statement, Ito apologized for his “error in judgement” and said he never heard Epstein discuss his sexual crimes. In that statement, he also promised to “raise an amount equivalent to the donations the Media Lab received from Epstein and will direct those funds to non-profits that focus on supporting survivors of trafficking. I will also return the money that Epstein has invested in my investment funds.”
Epstein’s name was mentioned in connection to a July 2016 conference in the 2020 report, with Ito asking Democratic megadonor Reid Hoffman – a member of the lab’s advisory council – whether to invite the disgraced financier to a conference that same month out of concerns he’d be recognized. People may “see him and maybe know he’s involved,” Ito wrote, per a footnote in the report. The conference where the “child-size sex robots” concept was pitched was the only conference in July 2016, the lab’s website shows. Epstein ultimately did not attend.
Epstein did visit the MIT campus at least nine times between 2013 and 2017, the report states. Hoffman joined one of these meetings. The report states Epstein brought “assistants” who were young women “on some visits” to campus, including a visit in 2016, which made staff uncomfortable.
Ito and Hoffman remain connected. On July 11, 2025, Ito announced a “Radical Transformation Award” and $68,000 cash prize underwritten by Hoffman at Chiba Institute of Technology in Japan. Neither Hoffman nor the Chiba Institute responded to requests for comment.
The July 2016 conference also introduced for the first time the idea of a “Disobedience Award” – a $250,000 award underwritten by Hoffman, along with an orb-shaped trophy designed by former MIT Media Lab Associate Professor of Media Arts and Sciences Neri Oxman. Epstein himself received one of these orbs for his status as a donor to the MIT Media Lab, the Boston Globe reported.
Oxman did not respond to a request for comment.
A 2018 Disobedience Award (Photo credit: Mediated Matter Group, Creative Commons)
The MIT Media Lab began giving the Disobedience Awards at the subsequent summer conference, renamed from “Forbidden Research” to Defiance in 2017. The Media Lab hosted a ceremony honoring more Disobedience Awards recipients in November 2018.
Epstein said in a 2017 interview with Science Magazine that he supported the MIT Media Lab because the researchers there are “rebels who don’t fit in.”
“The MIT [Massachusetts Institute of Technology] Media Lab is a good example,” Epstein 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,” he said. “They were probably overlooked [in school]. They were definitely never class president.”
Epstein claimed in emails to have facilitated $7 million in donations from former Apollo Global Management CEO Leon Black and Microsoft CEO Bill Gates in 2014, according to the 2020 fact-finding report. Gates has denied that claim. Black has acknowledged giving to Epstein-linked charities but has not addressed the alleged connection to MIT directly, the report states. Requests for comment from Gates through the Gates Foundation and Black through Apollo were not responded to.
The 2020 MIT-commissioned report said that “perhaps” the July 2016 conference to which Ito and Hoffman discussed inviting Epstein was an event with the lab’s fellows.
The lab’s fellows were announced in July but it’s not clear that announcement resembled a conference.
The report’s uncertain suggestion that Ito may have weighed an Epstein invitation to the low-key “announcement of the Media Lab Directors’ Fellows” may have distracted the public from the lab’s annual summer event — the flashier conference on pushing moral boundaries that same month — according to former MIT Media Lab research scientist Babak Babakinejad, who is suing the university over allegations of research fraud.
Babakinejad purportedly blew the whistle on an agriculture project one tech blog dubbed “Theranos for Plants.”
He told the DCNF that his lawsuit should reveal documents related to Epstein as Ito sought funding from Epstein for the agricultural project’s principal research scientist, per the 2020 report.
The Media Lab’s connections to Epstein predate Ito. Ito was introduced to Epstein in February 2013 by Linda Stone, a former member of the Media Lab’s Advisory Council, at a TED Conference in Long Beach, California. Epstein was also close to MIT Media Lab Co-founder Marvin Minsky, an early artificial intelligence researcher, he told Science.
“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 the outlet in 2017.
DCNF co-founder Tucker Carlson was critical of billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman at a public event on July 11, prompting a reply from Ackman on X in which he acknowledged that Oxman, who is his wife, had received $125,000 in funding from Epstein as an artist at the MIT Media Lab.
“I never met Jeffrey Epstein, flew on his planes, went to any of his parties and/or properties, or interacted with him ever,” Ackman said. “When my wife was a professor at MIT, she received a $125,000 grant from Epstein (prior to my knowing of her existence). She met Epstein once for 45 minutes at the request of the head of the MIT MediaLab. […] If this is why Tucker thinks I am in Jeffrey Epstein’s constellation, it’s clear he doesn’t know anything about astronomy.”
