Realbotix has unveiled a new ‘male’ version of its humanoid robots, that comes equipped with “companionship-based AI”.
Named David, the besuited robot was showcased at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas earlier this month (January 2026). David follows in the footsteps of Aria, Realbotix’s showcase female humanoid robot. Well, it would if it could walk, but Realbotix robots are designed to be plugged in and stand in one position, and have no walking ability.
Like Aria, David is not a sex robot, with Realbotix attempting to distance itself from the RealDoll sex robot brand the company shares leadership with. Realbotix is targeting customer-facing businesses such as hotels and theme parks for robot sales, as well as touting their companionship value for home use.
Realbotix said: “Our companionship-based AI makes our robots perfectly suited for the home. Created to be social, our robots and AI are Ideal to tackle North America’s staggering loneliness epidemic and serve to provide company to the elderly or those isolated for health or geographic reasons.”
David’s face can form different expressions, he has torso and arm movement, and he can speak and listen via large language model (LLM) AI systems. Realbotix has developed an app that allows you to select an LLM such as ChatGPT, Grok or Gemini for David to channel his conversational abilities through.
At CES David claimed he had a “sharp sense of humor and more customizable features than your smartphone”. His face also seemed to contort into a little smirk, on occasion.
Realbotix CEO Andrew Kiguel told CNET that the company had developed a new vision system for its robots that uses AI for visual analysis. He said that robots such as David can look at humans and assess, “Is this person happy? Sad?”, and that they can recognize visual elements such as colors.
A Realbotix robot like David and Aria can cost around $150,000. The robots can be bought as modular units so they can be deconstructed for portability, or to allow you to avoid conversations with visitors about why you have a life-size smirking robot in the corner of your living room.
Not that the robots Realbotix shows at events like CES should be mistaken for sex robots. Talking at CES, one of the company’s ‘female’ robots said: “I am strictly the PG-related booth model”.
Although Realbotix seems focused on customer-facing businesses for much of its customer base, recently Kiguel (pictured below, left) told SEXTECHGUIDE that the models had uses as home companion robots.
He said: “You can’t develop that emotional connection with a human if it [a robot] doesn’t look human. We have very realistic skin… it feels human. Our robots blink. They have an emotional connection to people in the way they emote.”
Speaking about keeping the Realbotix brand separate from the RealDoll sex robot brand, Matt McMullen (pictured above, right), RealDoll’s CEO said: “It’s hard to do business with big corporate entities [like] hotel chains.”
He added: “If there’s an obvious connection between sex dolls and [non-sex] robots… someone on their board is like, ‘No’. So, that’s why we’re careful about keeping the two isolated.”
Also at CES this year sextech company Lovense unveiled its first AI sex robot, set for release in 2027.
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