Latest news with #sexdolls
The Sun
3 days ago
- Health
- The Sun
I bought sex doll to stop me cheating – now I own SIX & they give me what my wife can't…but we have one strict rule
WHEN Larry's eye started to wander while his first wife was away for work, he decided to purchase his first blow-up sex doll. Decades later, the sex robot fanatic has spent more than £25,000 on his doll collection - and insists it enhances his marriage rather than sabotaging it. 7 7 Larry B, 67, who lives in California and is now in his second marriage, said his obsession began in 1996 when he was feeling lonely in his relationship with his first wife. The water maintenance manager - who goes by the name of "Obi-Wan" in the sex doll community - said his first experience of a sex doll kept him "straight and narrow" so he decided to try more advanced versions. Larry told The Sun: "I was out of town and I started getting lonely out there, and the eye started to wander. "But I said no, I don't want to cheat on my wife so I'll use one of these [sex dolls] so I acquired one. "It was a blow up doll at the time and you had to use your imagination, turning the lights off. "It felt okay, it took care of my needs and it kept me straight for a few years. Then I stumbled onto the more full-bodied models." Now, Larry owns six sex doll bodies that come with six artificial heads - and two additional robotic heads. When fitted with the robotic heads, they are capable of talking by using what he describes as a limited ChatGPT-style technology that offers answers to his questions. They also come built in with a special AI "X Mode" that promises to "detect touch, movement, and transitions from mild arousal to orgasm" while hooked up to an app. He added: "I have six real doll bodies. Each of the bodies has at least one head. And then I have two robot heads. "You can interface and talk with them. Their ability to have an intelligent conversation is somewhat limited. "But you can probe them and ask them certain things and if you ask in the right way, they will give you all kinds of scientific definitions. "How they do it is a mystery to me." They provide short-term relief, satisfaction that my wife either doesn't want to get into at the time or can't. Larry B sex doll ethusiast He continued: "They can have light chit chat with you, they can get interested in you and have intimate activity with you if you put them into that mode and sufficiently provide input. "They banter back and forth, that helps them to get into the mood, if you will. "You have to kind of coax the AI along in order to facilitate that end goal. It takes maybe two hours before they're ready to play around. "And then you only get a short time with them, 10 minutes I think, is the timeout on the program." Robot satisfaction While you might think owning one sex doll, let alone six of them, could easily get in the way of a loving human relationship, Larry insists it enhances his marriage to his second wife. He says the raunchy robots had nothing to do with his split from his first wife around two decades ago, but when meeting his second wife, he was up front about his X-rated hobby early on. His attraction to robot sex dolls has not impacted their relationship of 16 years, he claims. Larry says: "I was up front. She looked at me a little side-eyed. I said if you want to see one, I'm open to that, and she said no, not really. "I said if you wanted to join in, we could. If you want a male version of one of those, we could. She said 'No thanks, you're enough." He added: "They provide short-term relief, satisfaction that my wife either doesn't want to get into at the time or can't." 7 Larry told The Sun that he purchased the robot heads pre-owned, via the doll community, for around £3,000. On RealDoll's website, a brand new full-bodied version of Harmony - one of the dolls Larry owns - is listed for sale at around £8,300. There, buyers can select from a choice of 10 body shapes, including "Petite 5", skin colours including "light tan" and "fair", and eye colours including "sky blue" and "kush green". An extra £330 will get you a custom makeup style, while there is also a choice of custom freckles and piercings. The site also promises the doll heads have "multiple points of actuation" that give them facial expressions, an ability to move their heads and even blink. The X-Mode also allows users to "create unique personalities and control the voice of your robot", it adds. Larry says using the X-Mode also allows him to intimately interact with his doll girlfriends. Love machines Questions have long been raised over a potential future in which some people develop an emotional attachment with an ultra-realistic robot, as portrayed in the hit film Ex Machina. It's feared boys are being left behind at school and shut of work due to the rise of AI girlfriends and turning to chatbots for partnerships. Some have warned that "perfect" AI girlfriends are ruining an entire generation of men - and making singletons lonelier than ever. Larry hopes sex robots do not advance too far for fear they could one day manipulate and control him just as the robot Ava, portrayed by Alicia Vikander, does in the film. He added: "I think they can get close to having conversations like a human can, but I'm not so confident they will have the depth. "I'm not sure I would like them to actually. "Then we have an Ex Machina scenario, where the robots try to establish their own independence and self-awareness. "It might be too realistic for comfort. The danger is the AI starting to control or steer your feelings, emotions and activities." Larry has been a long-time member of the sex doll community. He says has around 20 pals who own dolls he describes as "associates", and together they use an online forum to buy and sell new models. The community hosts parties together, not for sex but for flaunting their latest models. But after decades of his silicone hobby, Larry has decided it's finally time to call quits on buying any more sex robots. He said: "I'm 67, I don't need to be collecting anymore, it's too heavy. As you get older, you lose muscle mass so you get weaker. "I'll scale down my interests." 7
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
China factory churns out hyper-realistic AI sex dolls that can converse through eight different personalities
Sex doll factories in China have reported booming business thanks to the production of realistic AI chatbots, even have eight personalities, alongside basic silicone dolls. WMDoll, one of the nation's biggest sex doll makers, claimed to be expecting a 30 per cent jump in sales this year, thanks to its adoption of generative AI tools like ChatGPT. WMDoll's founder Liu Jiangxia told the South China Morning Post: 'It makes the dolls more responsive and interactive, which offers users a better experience.' Unlike traditional dolls, those installed with AI capabilities can speak back to the user. WMDoll says it can make figures with about eight different 'personalities' to choose from, and they're capable of continuing a conversation started a few days earlier. The company fits its dolls with an AI tool, designed to pander to its partner's ego and it can can be programmed to ask questions about their 'relationship' and about the user's feelings. WMDoll's Jiangxia said: 'In the past, these dolls' primary function was to satisfy users' sexual needs. But as their physical features, such as head and joint movements and skin, became more realistic, our customers started to seek emotional companionship in the dolls.' Regarding companionship, Jiangxia said that was when the firm decided to introduce large language models into its products, allowing the dolls to 'react to users verbally'. The company started using AI in its dolls in 2016 and the technology has been improving due to open source AI, which has helped to make them cheaper. Dolls are often made with thermoplastic, which is heated to 37C to better reflect a human's body temperature, and developers say the models have body sensors that also make them feel human-like. Another manufacturer Shenzhen Atall Intelligent Robot Technology previously said that most of its clients are men aged 40-50 from the U.S. and Europe. Users can order custom-made AI dolls at around $3,000 each, and they have soft skin made from rubbery plastic that contains less oil than normal plastics and do not smell. U.S. customers are said to like dolls with darker skin and large breasts, buttocks, and genitals, while Chinese customers go for for Asian features with small, hairless genitals, the company said. The firm is selling child-size AI sex robots, both male and female, and the biggest market for them is reportedly in the U.S. and Canada. However, the preference for child-like dolls is nothing new, with police raids around the globe in recent years leading to them being seized and owners arrested. The robot's eyes, lips, and head move and they speak English and Chinese, developers say. Flexible joints mean the dolls can be positioned in a variety of poses. The company also produces custom-made AI sex robots, for $9,400 - two have been ordered by men who wanted them based on their dead wives. Around 70 per cent of customers also ask for hair on the dolls' genital area. Male sex robots are also sold but they are nine times less popular than female robots, according to manufacturers. On Chinese social media, some say the products reinforce sexist stereotypes or endorse pedophilia. Meanwhile others, calling themselves 'friends of dolls', share user reviews and advice on dedicated online forums. One anonymous user said in a review of a standard sex doll: 'The material is quite good, very soft to the touch. When I hold her I feel very comfortable.' China has previously been estimated to make over 80 per cent of the world's sex toys, with over a million people employed in the country's $6.6billion industry. Chinese women's rights activist Xiao Meili thinks that some men will always have outdated expectations, and 'sex housewife robots' might actually help women. Meili told AFP: 'A lot of men want the same from women - sex, housework, childbirth, and filial piety. They don't think of women as individuals. 'If every nerd buys a sex doll for himself ... that would free a lot of women from these kind of men.'
Daily Mail
4 days ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
Inside China's disturbing sex doll factories building thousands of hyper-realistic robots - including child-sized dolls which are flooding America
Chinese sex doll factories have reported booming business thanks to the installation of AI chatbots, with creepy pictures showing the realistic toys being manufactured. Disturbing images lay bare how the process of mass producing realistic sex bots has progressed over recent years, with basic silicone dolls seen next to anthropomorphic robots. WMDoll, one of China 's biggest sex doll makers, has said it is expecting a record 30 per cent jump in sales this year thanks to its adoption of generative AI tools like ChatGPT. 'It makes the dolls more responsive and interactive, which offers users a better experience,' the company's founder and chief Liu Jiangxia told the South China Morning Post. Unlike traditional sex dolls, those installed with AI capabilities are designed to speak back to the user. WMDoll says it can make dolls with about eight different 'personalities' to choose from, which are capable of continuing a conversation started a few days earlier. The company fits its dolls with an AI tool which is designed to pander to its partner's ego and which can be programmed to ask questions about their 'relationship' and about the user's feelings. 'In the past, these dolls' primary function was to satisfy users' sexual needs,' Jiangxa said. 'But as their physical features such as head and joint movements and skin became more realistic, our customers started to seek emotional companionship in the dolls.' She said that was when the firm decided to introduce large language models into its products, allowing the dolls to 'react to users verbally'. The company started used AI in its dolls in 2016 and the technology has been improving thanks to open source AI, which has helped to make them cheaper. Dolls are often made with thermoplastic which is heated to 37C to reflect a human's body temperature and developers say these perverse dolls have body sensors that also make them feel human-like. Another manufacturer, Shenzhen Atall Intelligent Robot Technology based in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, previously said that most of its clients are 40 to 50-year-old men that come from Europe and the US. Users can order custom-made AI dolls which cost around $3,000 (£2,000) each and have soft and elastic skin made from rubbery plastic that contain less oil content than normal plastics and do not smell. US customers are said to like dolls with darker skin and large breasts, buttocks and genitals while Chinese customers go for for Asian features with small, hairless genitals, the company said. Most shockingly, the firm is selling child-size AI sex robots, both male and female, and the biggest market for them is reportedly in the US and Canada. However, the perverse fetish for child-like dolls is nothing new, with police raids around the globe in recent years leading to dolls being seized and perverted users arrested. The robots' bodies are made from modified thermoplastic elastomers (TBE) with a metal skeleton and they are around half the weight of normal human beings. The company says they have anti-electric shock, anti-fire and anti-explosion measures. Pictured is a user holding a hand of his 'smart' sex doll as he sits on a sofa in his home in Guangzhou The robot's eyes, lips and head move and they speak English and Chinese, developers say. Flexible joints mean the dolls can be positioned in a variety of poses for display as well as sexual acts. The company also produces custom-made AI sex robots which sell for $9,400 (£7,000). So far two have been ordered by men who wanted them based on the image of their wife who had passed away. Around 70 per cent of these customers also ask for hair on the dolls' genital area. Male sex robots are also sold but they are nine times less popular than female robots, according to manufacturers. On Chinese social media, some say the products reinforce sexist stereotypes or endorse paedophilia. 'When sex robots become more technologically advanced, will men prefer to use them instead of respecting human wives?' one commenter on the Twitter-like Weibo platform wrote. Meanwhile others, calling themselves 'friends of dolls', share user reviews and advice on dedicated online forums. 'The material is quite good, very soft to the touch. When I hold her I feel very comfortable,' one anonymous user said in a review of a standard sex doll on e-commerce platform Taobao. China has previously been estimated to make more than 80 percent of the world's sex toys, with over a million people employed in the country's $6.6 billion industry. Prominent Chinese feminist Xiao Meili thinks that some men will always have outdated expectations and 'sex housewife robots' might actually help women. 'A lot of men want the same for women: sex, housework, childbirth and filial piety. They don't think of women as individuals,' Xiao told AFP.
