In today’s edition of “the dystopia is already here,” robot strippers with CCTV camera heads are putting on a show in Las Vegas as an attraction for attendees of the Consumer Electronics Show.
Taylor Lorenz of the Daily Beast reports that the robo-dancers made their debut at a party at Sapphire strip club on Monday, the night before the massive trade show kicks off. They’ll be there all week in the club’s attempt to attract an audience of all genders — though it seems the overwhelming majority that turned out the first night were men.
Originally created by London artist Giles Walker as political art, the robots’ function in this setting was to grind on poles next to buckets labeled “MIT bound” and “need money for batteries” and to compete with human dancers. (Which, yes, sounds like the laziest Black Mirror plot point ever.) This is perhaps not the greatest choice in an industry known for rampant sexism and at a time when it, like all industries, is facing extra scrutiny over sexual-misconduct allegations.
They also didn’t seem to impress the CES attendees much. “I’ve seen robots do much more complicated things than these ones are doing now,” one named Adam told the Beast. “So I’m a little underwhelmed.”
