Sun, Feb 04, 2018 page15

• ‘Smart’ sex dolls aim to fill a void in China

  Amid the country’s aging population and huge gender gap, one firm wants to marry artificial intelligence with life-like dolls capable of curing loneliness and caring for the elderly and handicapped

  • By Joanna Chiu / AFP, DALIAN, China
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  With China facing a massive gender gap and a graying population, a company wants to hook up lonely men and retirees with a new kind of companion: “smart” sex dolls that can talk, play music and turn on dishwashers.

  Rows of voluptuous silicon bodies hang in the warehouse of EXDOLL, a firm based in the northeastern port city of Dalian, but engineers are also working on bringing them to life.

  A programmer in a lab coat asked a petite blonde prototype sitting on a chair and dressed in a see-through white blouse: “What is your name?”

  

  An engineer makes adjustments to a robot inside an EXDOLL lab at a factory in Dalian, China, on Thursday.

  Photo: AFP

  “My name is Xiaodie, but you can also call me baby. But if I’m not happy, I won’t answer,” the robotic voice said through a speaker, although its lips did not move.

  EXDOLL has ambitions to apply artificial intelligence to make dolls so life-like that they could cure loneliness among the country’s singletons and care for the elderly and handicapped.

  There are 33.6 million more men than women in the country of 1.4 billion people.

  The gap is attributed to China’s former one-child policy and a traditional preference for sons, which has led to selective and illegal abortion. About 114 boys are born for every 100 girls, far above the global average.

  China also has a rapidly aging population, which is putting strains on the healthcare and social welfare system.

  Seated between two non-robotic silicon companions, one in a short black skirt and a smaller model in a schoolgirl outfit, marketing director Wu Xingliang said his company’s products could solve the country’s major social problems.

  “China has a shortage of women, and this is a factor in why there’s this demand, but they’re not just for sex,” said Wu, whose customers include single young and older men, but also married ones.

  “We’re designing them so they can have meaningful conversations with you and help with chores around the house. They could eventually even work as medical assistants or receptionists,” Wu said.

  Xiaodie is essentially a sex doll fitted with a function similar to the iPhone’s Siri voice assistant, which can surf the Internet and respond to voice commands.

  It can turn home appliances that are connected to Wi-Fi on and off.

  Users can control the 25,000 yuan (US$3,966) doll — much pricier than the traditional sex dolls that the company sells for as little as 2,500 yuan — with a smartphone app or by giving it verbal instructions.

  In the next year, EXDOLL hopes to roll out more advanced robots featuring artificial intelligence, complex facial expressions and body movements, voice recognition and eyes that can follow people’s movements.

  A shapely prototype in a racy white dress bows to greet male engineers at the factory.

  The programmers pore over 3D models on computer screens, while another one assembles a skeleton with exposed wires and joints — reminiscent of the white droids in the Will Smith science fiction film I, Robot.

  The machine becomes more lifelike as he gingerly affixes silicon skin — hand-painted in sultry makeup colors — over its face.

  EXDOLL chief development officer Qiao Wu said the goal is to create the most beautiful and most human-like robot possible.

  “There are already good robot technologies developed, so we want to concentrate on having a robot with the most beautiful face, and the hottest body,” he said.

  The company makes 400 custom dolls per month, up from 10 in 2009. It began research into sex-bots in mid-2016 and now employs 120 people.

  On the factory floor for “traditional” sex dolls, Wu points out that buyers can customize each doll for height, skin tone, breast size, amount of pubic hair, eye color and hair color.

  However, the most popular dolls have pale skin, disproportionately swelled breasts and measure between 158cm and 170cm tall.

  Asked whether smaller models are supposed to resemble children, Wu recoiled and said they were diminutive because some customers prefer “less heavy” and “more portable” dolls.

  On Chinese social media, some have said the products reinforce sexist stereotypes or endorse pedophilia.

  “When sex robots become more technologically advanced, will men prefer to use them instead of respecting human wives?” one microblog user said.

  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 (淘寶).

  China is estimated to make more than 80 percent of the world’s sex toys, with more than 1 million people employed in the country’s US$6.6 billion industry.

  Prominent Chinese feminist Xiao Meili (蕭美麗) 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 said. “If every nerd buys a sex doll for himself ... that would free a lot of women from these kind of men.”
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