The use of artificial intelligence (AI) models has led to a surge in the sale of sex dolls, WMDolls one of China's biggest adult toy makers has claimed. According to a report in South China Morning Post, the company's adoption of open-source AI models has helped improve the user experience of its products leading to a recorded 30 per cent jump in sales.
"It makes the dolls more responsive and interactive, which offers users a better experience," said WMDolls founder and chief executive Liu Jiangxia.
The Zhongshan-based company is integrating tools like ChatGPT with its new anthropomorphic sex toys. Soon after OpenAI released ChatGPT in 2022, WMDoll started exploring how the technology could revolutionise the sex toy industry.
After a year-long development process, Ms Liu's team managed to send over 100 prototypes of its LLM-powered Metabox series to customers across North America and Europe.
While the AI tools-embedded sex dolls are more expressive and offer about fight different 'personalities', the traditional sex dolls are limited to simple responses which makes them incapable of engaging a human. The new dolls can also continue a conversation that was started a few days earlier with the user.
Addressing the data privacy concerns, Ms Liu said: "All data is stored locally in the country [where the dolls are used] and we don't have access to them."
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Robot girlfriend
Last month, a robot, named 'Aria', developed by Realbotix, was unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, which can act as a companion while delivering nearly human-like expressions.
Realbotix's CEO Andrew Kiguel said his company was hoping to make robots "indistinguishable from humans" which could also tackle the male loneliness epidemic.
"We're taking it to a different level that nobody else is really doing," Mr Kiguel said. "It can be like a romantic partner. It remembers who you are. It can act as a boyfriend or girlfriend. If you ever saw that movie Her, we're trying to do that."
A video of Aria and her facial expressions went viral on social media, triggering a sea of comments, ranging from fascination to abject horror as to what technology had transformed into.
The robot is available to purchase for a measly sum of Rs 1.5 crore ($175,000).
