Male sex tech has struggled over the years to be given a chance to shine at the annual Consumer Electronic Show (CES) at Las Vegas. Back in 2020, the entrepreneur Brian Sloan famously kicked up a fuss over their decision not to allow him to show off his Autoblow sex toy for men. Sloan, quite rightly in my view, claimed that the CES rules regarding sex toys discriminated against men as it forbid only ‘anatomically correct human genitalia’. So it was a surprise to see premium sex toy brand Lovense showcasing the first female ‘adult’ doll at this year’s event. Lovense are marketing it as an ‘AI Companion Doll’, rather than a ‘sex robot’, and in truth, it is very similar to the current offerings from the likes of Realbotix and one or two Chinese companies. The attractive and realistic ‘Emily’ can only move her head in a limited way, make basic facial expressions, and wink. Her lips also move when she is speaking.
It’s really the AI personality that powers her that is most advanced feature of Emily (who can be personalized to include giving her any name you want). A couple of months ago, Lovense were the first (along with Brian Sloan and his AI Autoblow) to introduce AI companions who could remotely control your (Lovense) sex toys. This is a start in giving such AI companions embodied form. It’s exciting that Lovense have entered this space, and increased competition for the likes of Realbotix will surely spur progress even further. I rather expect though that the first true ‘sex robots’ are likely to come from one of the companies that are currently building such amazing humanoid robots for the home and work environments, such as Tesla, even if it requires an ‘addon’ to enable physical sex with one.
According to Endgadget, it is not known whether Emily has intimate parts, which is perhaps why they got around the strict ‘anatomically correct’ sex toy rule. Lovense did say, however, that she “includes built-in Bluetooth connectivity that allows it to integrate with the wider Lovense ecosystem of devices.” Emily can also last for up to eight hours on a single battery charge. It’s available to pre-order at the Lovense site, but you’ll need to pay a deposit of $200. It’s also not expected to be ready until next year and will likely cost at least $4K.
Emily wasn’t the only AI doll featured at this year’s CES. Realbotix were once again present with their latest dolls, aimed for commercial uses such as hospitality. The main progress since last year appears to be that they now have vision.
