Sex robots ‘could kill’ if hacked, experts warn

And other stories from the stranger side of life

an engineer holding a silicon face against the head of a robot at a lab of a doll factory.
(Image credit: Fred Dufour/AFP via Getty Images)

Hackers could make sex robots kill humans, experts have warned. The creations feature increasingly sophisticated artificial intelligence with each new model, allowing users to enjoy intimate simulations. However, a Hong Kong law firm is warning that “hacking into many modern-day robots, including sexbots, would be a piece of cake”. Nicholas Patterson, a cybersecurity lecturer at Deakin University in Melbourne, added: “Once hacked they could absolutely be used to perform physical actions for an advantageous scenario or to cause damage.”

Cleric says vaccines turn patients gay

An Iranian cleric has warned his followers that the Covid-19 vaccination turns people into “homosexuals”. In a post on social media, Ayatollah Abbas Tabrizian said: “Don’t go near those who have had the Covid vaccine. They have become homosexuals.” Last year he burned a medical manual in a filmed ceremony, claiming that “Islamic medicine” had made such books “irrelevant”.

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13-year-old arrested for drink driving

A 13-year-old boy is facing a driving ban before he can get a provisional license after he allegedly took his dad’s car on a joyride while drunk. The boy crashed his father’s Ford Escort into a lamppost in Hampshire in the early hours of the morning. Metro reports that when he failed a breathalyser test, he became angry and spat at police. If convicted he could become the youngest drink-driver in Britain.

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Chas Newkey-Burden has been part of The Week Digital team for more than a decade and a journalist for 25 years, starting out on the irreverent football weekly 90 Minutes, before moving to lifestyle magazines Loaded and Attitude. He was a columnist for The Big Issue and landed a world exclusive with David Beckham that became the weekly magazine’s bestselling issue. He now writes regularly for The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, Metro, FourFourTwo and the i new site. He is also the author of a number of non-fiction books.