“Technical challenges remain, especially in achieving realistic human-to-human interactions,” he said. “Simple dialogue is easy, but creating interactive responses requires complex model development by specialized software companies.”
Traditional dolls, supported by metal skeletons and silicone exteriors, can only make simple reactions and lack the expressiveness needed to engage with humans.
“The new generation of sex dolls, powered by AI models and equipped with sensors, can respond with both movement and words, significantly improving the user experience by focusing not just on basic conversational abilities but also on emotional connection,” Lee said.
01:51
“Grandma Robot” attracts attention at Peking University athletic meet
“Grandma Robot” attracts attention at Peking University athletic meet
The company has focused on markets outside China but is now targeting the domestic market as well.
Li said China is the largest market for sex dolls, with sales surpassing those of the United States, Japan and Germany combined, despite the country being a generally conservative society and generally reluctant to discuss such topics.
“People in the industry know that China has a huge market and the purchasing power in its major cities exceeds that of many European countries. The market is open-minded, but the aesthetic sensibility is different to the European market,” he said.
StarPerry’s roadmap also includes developing robots that can perform household chores, assist the disabled, and care for the elderly. The company aims to launch the first “smart service robot” capable of more complex services for the disabled by 2025. By 2030, the company plans, these robots may even protect people from dangerous jobs.
Achieving this level of development poses two main challenges, Li said: battery capacity and artificial muscle.
First, unlike electric cars, humanoid robots don’t have the space for large batteries, so the energy density of batteries needs to be improved for the robots to operate autonomously. Second, current engines lack the flexibility of human muscles, which can exert a wide range of force, be hard or soft, and conform to the skin, Li said.
Currently, to maintain realism, dolls often weigh up to 40 kg (88 lb), which is too heavy for the motors and poses the risk of them falling and injuring the user.
“So in the first phase, we focused on reducing the weight through improving materials and manufacturing processes,” Lee said. By July 2023, the 172cm tall doll would weigh just 29kg.
Li said that robots that can do household chores are a social vision that is still some way off: Robotics companies can use servo motors to perform certain functions, but commercialization is still a long way off due to reliability and cost considerations.
“It will take about 10 years for the industry as a whole to achieve that goal,” he said.
In addition to technical difficulties, Star Perry faces cost and ethical challenges.
Gearboxes are a key part of a humanoid robot’s mechanical system, transmitting power between the motors and the robot’s joints. They typically account for 30 percent of a robot’s cost and may require multiple gears for different joints.
“We try to bring the cost down so more people can buy realistic dolls, but adding a motor increases the cost. [to] “To an extent,” Lee said.
Star Perry dolls, which have a complete supply chain and low manufacturing costs, are priced at around $1,500. Advanced Harmony dolls, manufactured by Abyss Creations in the US, are priced from $6,000.
Star Perry is based in Shenzhen, in the southern province of Guangdong, which is now the world’s largest production base for adult products, giving the company a price advantage.
“Guangdong’s supply chain is complete and manufacturers respond quickly to market demand. New technology can usually be found in a product one month and then appear somewhere else the next,” Li said.
Besides Starpery, other Chinese manufacturers are also incorporating AI into their dolls, including WMdoll in Zhongshan, Guangdong province, and EXdoll in Dalian, northeastern Liaoning province, which are also planning to launch interactive products.
“Innovation driven by customized models trained on diverse datasets has sparked a wave of products that are transforming the industry landscape and user interaction,” said Tang Jie, a computer science professor at Tsinghua University.
For example, in the humanoid robotics industry, large-scale language models play a key role in development.
“In addition to speeding up robotics iterations and enhancing motion control, we’ve also created a suite of user-friendly tools,” said Ou Jinyan, a spokesman for robotics developer LimX Dynamics. [boost] “Developer Productivity”
01:19
Sex doll ‘married’ in bizarre cult ritual outside Myanmar’s holiest Buddhist temple
Sex doll ‘married’ in bizarre cult ritual outside Myanmar’s holiest Buddhist temple
In addition to technical challenges, the industry also faces a very human one: AI-powered sex robots could blur ethical boundaries and reinforce harmful attitudes about consent and negative gender stereotypes.
Criticisms include the view that an over-reliance on AI companions for sexual or emotional fulfilment could dilute real human connections and affect users’ ability to form healthy relationships with real people.
Additionally, the rapid development of AI-powered sex robots is outpacing existing legal and regulatory frameworks, creating legal grey areas regarding their use, ownership, and the liability of manufacturers and users.
“AI that can make decisions under certain conditions may challenge human autonomy and self-awareness. Large-scale language models also pose risks of data leakage and privacy infringement, as information from users may become material for training generative AI,” the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology said in a 2023 paper, “Research Report on AI Ethics Governance.”
