Smart bots: China's sex doll makers jump on AI drive

AI features on the dolls are still very basic: they can answer questions but cannot hold long conversations.

Amid Beijing's push to turn the country into an artificial intelligence (AI) powerhouse and embed the technology in all facets of life, some Chinese entrepreneurs are taking the expertise to a new frontier: sex dolls.

WMDOLL, one of China's biggest sex doll makers, which is based in the southeastern province of Guangdong, launched what it calls AI-powered dolls at end of 2016 that offer features ranging from simple conversation to moving eyes, arms, and torsos. Customers can personalize their dolls by choosing various appearance options including height, hairstyle, and eye color.

AI features on the dolls are still very basic: they can answer questions but cannot hold long conversations. The doll uses vocabulary by connecting to a database supported by Chinese tech giant Baidu.

The firm admits to improving the features has been difficult partly because experts aren't interested in putting much effort into developing AI technology for adult products.

"Of course we're not expecting to make our AI dolls that human-like, after all, we're just making adult products," said Liu Ding, WMDOLL product manager. "But we will surely add more advanced technologies... for example making the limbs move more naturally."

WMDOLL says it has sold more than 20 of the AI dolls, which are priced between 10,000 yuan and 50,000 yuan ($1,470 to $7,350), compared with their annual sales of 20,000 dolls.

The company hopes the AI dolls will eventually take off with overseas customers, including those in the United States - exports account for 80 percent of their sales, and half of their overseas shipments go to the United States. ($1=6.7982 Chinese yuan renminbi)

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)