They hadn't. The robots' skin and speech were still unrealistic, and they couldn't move around the conference floor. What was new, though, were several Chinese companies had arrived. (Their founders were invariably young men; one was so young his mom was there, hovering in the background, McArthur says.) As with AI, electric vehicles, and several other tech sectors, China's entrance into the sex robots market had knocked down the price point. Whereas American-made sex robots from the 2010s hype cycle typically started at around $7,000 and quickly exceeded $10,000, some Chinese manufacturers sell sex robots at around $3,000. "The technology had gotten cheaper, but not better," McArthur says.
Jiggly Joy's new model has all the classic features of a sex robot — Lau is one of many merchants who hyped up the "sucking vagina," a suction-and-release pump system — plus it could smile, talk, and wave. It also has a blonde bombshell haircut and can turn its neck like M3GAN. The robot still cannot walk, but that's mostly for safety reasons, Lau says; she's too heavy. The company has been selling about 21 AI dolls a month at $3,000, Lau says. Most of the buyers are American; they're either former sex doll users or lonely and wanted someone to talk to, Lau says.
I also reached a representative for Formosa Doll, a 5-person Hong Kong-based distributor that works exclusively with Chinese sex doll companies. (He asked for anonymity to protect his privacy.) He says AI sex robots are "underdeveloped" and not ready for sale. For one, some doll head prototypes removed the oral sucking motors from the mouth to make space for the AI voice. Trading sucking for talking, he says, is a "big downside."
Voice AI can also be unpredictable and unruly, and sex doll users may be used to making up role-play scenarios in their heads — scenarios they have full control over. That makes him skeptical that AI robots would sell well. "People want an experience, they want to satisfy a fantasy," he says. "People don't want something at home that talks."
The Western market, meanwhile, has mostly flattened out. I tried to contact four of the sex doll makers featured in articles in the 2010s hype cycle. My emails bounced, and my calls went to disconnected numbers.
The only company remaining from the late 2010s appears to be RealDoll, which is now spinning off from the publicly traded Realbotix. The independent RealDoll will be led by Sue Ennis, who started as president of Realbotix the day before our chat. She has big plans, repeating four times that the company would be the "Apple store of intimacy technology."
The robots are built and selling; RealDoll was shipping out 12 as we speak, Ennis tells me. (It's generally a low-revenue business: Realbotix, whose humanoids are also used in healthcare and corporate training settings, reported $353,037 in Q1 earnings.) They have AI voices, AI vaginas, and proprietary skin technology that's also sold to burn victims. Still, the dolls remain very heavy and lack mobility. Some customers take their dolls out on dates. "The dolls are definitely not walking into the theater," Ennis says. "They're being wheeled in."
If the sex robot revolution does happen, it may spread through specialization.
Most of the current AI robots look the same: blonde, skinny, hourglass-shaped. The sex doll underclass is growing more diverse, though. Elves were popular at Formosa Doll, as was Judy Hopps from the "Zootopia" movies. "Goblin dolls are a really hot trend now," Formosa's rep tells me. Consumers don't want generic sexbots; they want their sexbot.
I meet Jensen at his rep's apartment in Silver Lake, California. We sit side-by-side on the couch, a clutter-filled table with joints and doughnuts in front of us. The big chair is reserved for his sex doll doppelgänger, which he heaved in from his trunk. Jensen is upset; the previous owner, it seemed, had stuffed the sex doll in a closet and piled things on top. The doll retained some head scratches and a mild case of pink eye.
Jensen has worked with the Chinese company IronTech for over 3 years, during which the doll has undergone many evolutions. He performed a 3D body scan for the first iteration, but they couldn't scan his penis. When he saw the doll in-person, he ripped its too-small penis off clean. "It's bad for my brand," he says. He keeps that early, poorly sized phallus as a keepsake.
Yes, Jensen has had sex with himself. It was in an orgy scene, and he found it hilarious. After that scene, Jensen accidentally dropped the doll down a flight of stairs, damaging it beyond repair. He threw the doll in the dumpster, but a hairy elbow peeked out of the trash bag. A neighbor called the cops, thinking it was a corpse. The cops were delighted, he says. "They've seen sex dolls before, but they're those cheap, smaller ones that are washed up on the shore," he says. "They're like, 'Dude, this is gold.'"
Indeed, Jensen's doll didn't look cheap at all. I feel the skin and the hair, which are hauntingly realistic. I hold the breathtakingly large penis in my hand, and it feels like a breathtakingly large penis. Jensen has dozens of ideas to keep improving it: an opening in the lips so you could kiss it, a kit of different penis sizes for those who cannot take his full member, and an AI voice. His primary goal, though, is weight reduction: the current model is at least 140 pounds. He has to haul it over his shoulder to move it.
Jensen has sold around 100 dolls at about $3,800. His customers seem price-sensitive; sales have dropped since the tariffs went into effect. Some fans have considered a doll-sharing model.
by Henry Chandonnet, Business Insider | Read more:
Images: Simon Simard; Cliff Jensen
