Chinese Sex Doll Mega Producer Says Next-Gen AI Bots Are On the Way

One of the world’s largest sex doll producers is working on advanced, AI-powered robots that are more interactive and conversational.

The company, Starpery Technology, is training its own large language model for the product. It expects to have prototypes ready by August in both male and female forms, according to South China Morning Post.

“Technological challenges remain, particularly in achieving realistic human interaction,” says CEO Evan Lee. “While simple dialogue is easy, creating interactive responses involves complex model development by specialized software companies.”

The new dolls will be equipped with more sensors so they can react quickly to movements and speech, creating a more convincing emotional connection.

Starpery’s roadmap includes more practical robots as well. In a few years, it plans to offer some that can perform basic household chores, as well as its first “smart service robot” that can perform more complex services for people with disabilities and the elderly.

Tesla is working on a related product, dubbed Tesla Bots. This week, CEO Elon Musk affirmed his commitment to developing them in the company’s 2024 annual shareholder meeting, CNBC reports. He said the robots will be able to cook, clean, teach children, and perform factory work, among other tasks. Earlier this year, Musk agreed with a post on X that predicted every middle-class American household would have one within seven years.

Starpery will need to overcome a variety of technical and cultural challenges to achieve its plans. The company typically sells its products outside China, given the country’s relatively conservative culture. But Lee plans to crack into the Chinese market. He estimates the sales will surpass that of the US, Japan, and Germany combined, though the dolls must be “aesthetically different.”

Even though discussing sex toys is taboo in China, manufacturing them is not. Starpery is based in Shenzhen, in the southern Guangdong province, which is the adult sex toy production capital of the world. This creates supply chain efficiencies, economies of scale, and the ability to react to market demands, Lee says.

But there are still significant, unsolved production challenges. Traditional sex dolls are made of a metal skeleton with a silicone exterior. Their frames do not have enough space for the big batteries required to power the new capabilities, so Starpery will need to find more energy dense alternatives. The dolls also have primitive engines, which are not as efficient as human muscles in applying force over a wide area. Finally, the motors can be too heavy, posing a risk that the doll will fall and possibly hurt the user.

Creating the optimal robot will take the industry “about 10 years,” Lee says. Starpery is currently focusing on reducing the doll’s weight through the production process and says it has already gotten them down to 64-lbs from the typical 88-lbs.