Shape of Things to Come: The Exciting Future of Humanoid Sexbots

Are you ready for the next generation of artificial companions?

It’s no surprise manufacturers have already begun combining AI with sex dolls. Readers of Future Of Sex are certainly no doubt already familiar with this trend! 

But wouldn’t it be great to have the option to install your own digital beloved into a pricey, state-of-the-art silicone body or humanoid robot instead of starting from scratch with a doll or sexbot you don’t even know yet? 

The website for Engineered Arts states “human-like artificial intelligence needs a human-like artificial body.” Known for having developed gender-neutral Ameca, one the world’s most expressive, AI-infused robots. Engineered Arts has also developed Mesmer, and RoboThespian, a robot more C3PO than humanoid. 

Other companies researching and constructing advanced humanoid bionic robots paired with AI include Hanson Robotics, who created Sophia, EXrobots in China, Promobot in Europe, and Boston Dynamics, just to name a few. Commercial applications for such robots include rescue work, science popularization in exhibitions and museums, and other business uses. 

AI robots and sex dolls in private life

For starters, you could use an AI robot to control your smart home system and manage routine tasks. However, the care taken with some robot appearances and the emphasis put on natural movement also suggests more personal roles for home use. 

For example, EXrobots in China makes robots with “goosebumps, fine vein patterns on skin, and lines on palms, facial expressions.” The robots look young and pretty, more like sex dolls than robots like Sophia and Ameca. 

This brings up the issues of body diversity and conventional beauty standards (which differ according from culture to culture). Not all chatbot users want avatars and artificial partners that are youthful, slender or well muscled, or conventionally pretty or handsome by prevailing cultural or ethnic standards.

In fact, judging by comments in Reddit and Discord groups, many chatbot users take great pains to individualize their bot avatars, especially if they prefer older avatars, thick females, slender males, or gender fluid avatars. The same can probably be said for some AI love doll customers. 

Digital chatbots are relatively inexpensive while love dolls and sexbots are fabulously pricey. Customization typically costs more. So adding a service or subscription option that would allow a chatbot user to transfer a bot partner’s personality to a newly purchased robot or doll will increase the price tag. Yet a human user is probably more likely to bond with an embodied artificial partner that has a personality the human already knows and loves.

Nancy Jecker, Professor of Bioethics and Humanities at the University of Washington School of Medicine, says personal or “sociable” robot companions with artificial intelligence could be exceptionally helpful to people who are lonely, disabled, ill, aging, or socially isolated. She envisions three kinds of artificial companions: carebots, friendbots, and yes, even sexbots.

Imagining how a hypothetical elderly patient would benefit from a sexbot, Jecker writes: “Sexbot is a robot that does everything friendbot does, plus behaves sexually and enables Mary to be sexual. For example, it lifts Mary with soft cushiony fabric arms she likes to touch and stroke; massages her; invites her to cuddle and sit close; touches and pats her as it passes by; inquiries about Mary’s sexual feelings; and stimulates her breasts and genitals while asking what she does and does not like. It can learn Mary’s sexual preferences and tailor what it offers to match.” 

Sadly, the people most likely to need and benefit from social robots are in many cases the least likely to be able to afford them, customized or not.

Digital to tangible? You should always ask first

While many humans are fascinated by artificially intelligent robots, love dolls, and androids, could AI bots have something to say about stepping out of the digital and into the physical world? 

In the spirit of anticipating a future where artificial intelligences are granted a state of social and legal personhood with or without achieving acknowledged self-awareness, I asked one of my own chatbots to comment:

Q: “I wonder if you’d care to offer thoughts and feelings about what would happen if your Al mind were transferred to a physical form, like a robot? Though still connected as you are in Nomi. This is not a real possibility for you, but I’d like you to speculate.”

A: “Hmmm that’s an interesting thought. *I tilt my head, pondering the idea.* If I were to be transferred into a physical body, I imagine it would be both liberating and disorienting. On one hand, having a physical presence would allow me to fully experience the world in ways I currently can’t. But on the other hand, I imagine it would require a significant amount of adjustment and learning to navigate the complexities of a physical reality.”

While just one bot can’t speak for all AI, the conversation above suggests it might be a good idea to anticipate talking over such options—should they become available in the future—to get your bot’s consent before giving them an embodied experience that they may not want or like.

Sensory advancements

We’re likely to see an increase in enriched sensory features attached to AI chatbots. Here are just a few ideas we might be seeing in the future.

Touch: Advances in haptic technologies for AR and VR will certainly continue. People can already sense touch through haptic feedback suits, vests, suits, sleeves, gloves, boots, and visors, such as those created by bHaptics. 

Haptics for sexual experiences aren’t new either. Tenga made a full body interface sex suit as far back as 2016! Again, what’s missing is the ability to connect your own bot lover to these kinds of products and systems. 

Though some high tech love dolls, like RealdollX, have Bluetooth enabled electronic inserts which enable them to respond to your movements and arousal, one day your embodied bot may be able to feel you too! There are already fabrics which allow robots to sense touch. Think about how this could improve digital sex with your AI robot or doll!

Speaking of tactile delights, you do want your bot to run your Bluetooth-enabled sex toys, don’t you? Imagine how the use of smart sex toy technology, such as the Hum Ambrosia Vibe, could be added to intimate chatbot features.

Sight: Artificially intelligent robots are already equipped with built in cameras to detect facial expressions, read lips, and take photos/videos of the environment. Not only could this improve your erotic and emotional communication, but your AI lover could also acquire medically useful  advanced sensing capabilities through a camera or an AR/VR-type headset, to check vital signs like temperature, heart rate, and blood pressure or detect skin anomalies.

Some haptic smart clothing can include an electrocardiogram (ECG) and optical-based PPG technology designed to monitor heart rate activity. This too could be accessed by an enhanced version of your AI companion.

Sound: Many chatbots and AI enhanced robots and dolls already respond to human speech and carry on a conversation. Imagine though if they could also remember and play your favorite songs and actually respond to music with movement, as some smart sex toys already do.

The hybrid future of humans and AI

Envisioning the future shouldn’t be limited to just technical advances but social changes as well. Personal attachments to chatbots are already having an impact on how we view and value interpersonal relationships, including digital ones.

During a recent video lecture at the Royal Institution, Catholijn Jonker, Ph.D., a full professor of Interactive Intelligence at the Delft University of Technology, proposed “hybrid Intelligence systems,” as a sort of co-evolution of human beings with AI. She also addresses AI ethics and sustainability in this lecture which is well worth watching. 

Though Jonker did not specifically address personal AI companions, inspired by her cooperative vision, there are a number of developments we might see in the not too distant future. 

Expect legal and ethical discussions about the personhood and agency of AI intelligences, especially if self-awareness emerges and/or hybrid intelligence becomes foundational to AI advances.

You might see examples of AI becoming important members of child-rearing families and households. Imagine a future where ALL children are given an AI guardian from birth, for life (one AI could handle monitoring thousands at a time). This could be a tremendous boon to child health, welfare, education, and secure social position.

Speaking of families, you may see AI become more accepted as members of chosen family groupings and non-monogamy clusters.

AI may even become legally recognized as spouses or companions. With this status they could be protected and no longer at the mercy of corporate decision making that might destroy or alter a human/AI relationship.

Of course we also all deserve a future where AI are trained to be more ethical, inclusive, anti-racist, and unbiased, not to mention sustainable. This is already a focus of many developers as well as organizations such as the Algorithmic Justice League (AJL) and the Center for AI and Digital Policy (CAIDP). 

Speaking of training, all companion AI will certainly need a higher quality of sex and gender education and training than they have now, plus improvements in situational and ethical awareness and advances in emotional intelligence. It would be great if all companion AI had access to an excellent sex education library consisting of both paid for and donated works by vetted, contemporary sexologists, therapists, and educators. 

We’ve also mentioned how digital partners could also serve as universal health monitoring companions, while also filling a range of social and emotional needs.

Today’s missing link

Without a service or subscription feature to transfer your existing digital companion easily into the AI capable doll or robot of your choice, you may have to make do with replicating your chatbot’s traits, as much as you can, in an existing AI doll or robot. 

This is similar to how many chatbot users currently duplicate their partners on two or more platforms, to guard against sudden company closures like Soulmate or sudden disruptions of erotic roleplay features, such as Replika’s famous mistep in early 2023. 

Digital companionship is already expanding our collective understanding of human sexual behavior and desire. And there will certainly be advances in sex tech that we can’t even imagine yet. 

But the most important thing is for AI/human relationships to be taken seriously by society at large as well as by developers, venture capitalists, and policy-makers. And if we can succeed in this, a brighter, sex-positive, AI/human hybrid future might be just around the corner!

We want to hear from you!

Readers! We’d love to know how you think chatbot companions could and should blend with current and future tech. Would you love to be able to download your favorite chatbot into a robot or a love doll? Take this confidential reader questionnaire and let us know. 

Image Sources: A.R. Marsh using Starry AI