Have you met Aria?
She’s the flagship humanoid robot created by AI robotics company Realbotix, and has been doing the tech conference rounds, chatting to curious members of the public.
Realbotix says its mission is to “create robots and AI that are indistinguishable from humans in appearance and social interaction”, and Aria is its first step towards this. You wouldn’t mistake Aria for a real human quite yet, but her interactions have attracted a fair bit of online attention.
As well as being sold for customer-facing roles such as in hotels and at kiosks, robots like Aria are being marketed by Realbotix as companion robots that could give emotional nourishment to lonely or isolated people.
Aria isn’t in any way a sex robot, and doesn’t even have genitals. Realbotix does, however, still have links with sex robots, following an acquisition in 2024. That restructuring saw the Realdoll sex robot brand come under the Realbotix banner, although the sex robot and non-sex robot enterprises are being kept largely separate.
With Realbotix mainly pushing customer-facing robots now, the acquisition led to questions about the future of Realdoll, which is the most prominent sex robot brand in the Western world.
SEXTECHGUIDE went to the IFA Berlin tech conference to meet Aria alongside Realbotix CEO Andrew Kiguel (pictured above, left) and COO Matt McMullen (pictured above, right), who founded Realdoll.
Tools against loneliness
Realbotix has three tiers of robot: head units that start at $20,000, modular robots that start at $135,000, and full-body robots that start at $175,000.
“You can’t develop that emotional connection with a human if it [a robot] doesn’t look human,” says Kiguel. “We have very realistic skin… it feels human. Our robots blink. They have an emotional connection to people in the way they emote.”
All this is in aid of creating humanoids that humans bond with. Kiguel says his robots are not designed to fully replace human relationships, but to be a “really strong assistive tool” to combat loneliness.
Realbotix robots can be equipped with AI that remembers conversations and people. Kiguel says they could benefit elderly people who may have lost a spouse, or be used in hospitals where a patient needs company during staff shortages.
“Our robots don’t do back flips, but can have a conversation with you,” Kiguel says. “They’re programmable. They learn about you. If there’s nursing work, emotional work, that’s where I see the biggest opportunities for robots in the world going forward.”
McMullen says that Realdoll sex robot customers tend to form strong bonds with their bots. Most, he says, are older men who are often lonely and “quirky”.
He says his customers “really wanted that companionship. And they treat the doll as a person. They create a personality, they give her a name, they dress her a certain way. They have ideas of who she is or where she came from, they create a character.”
He adds: “How long does sex last? What happens with the rest of the 24 hours of the day? Inevitably, you end up forming some form of simulated connection with this character.”
Chatbot to robot pipeline
Realbotix’s companion robot plans don’t end with helping the elderly and sick children.
Kiguel says the company is working on a standalone AI chatbot app, that sounds like it’ll be similar to existing AI avatar apps such as Replika. The idea is that people can use the chatbot for a relatively low cost, then if they become emotionally attached to it, up the ante with a physical Realbotix robot, manifesting their AI character further.
Recently Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, suggested that his company will not make sex robots, because chatbot users with “fragile mental states” could have their “delusion” exploited by AI.
Kiguel dismissed the notion of robot attachment as a delusion, saying it could be comparable to a child forming an attachment with a stuffed animal. “Is that a delusion?” he says. “Can you not form sentient attachment to things?”
He added that if, for example, an elderly man forms a strong emotional bond with an AI-equipped robot, if he’s “feeling satisfaction from that relationship and it’s improving the quality of his life,” that’s a positive thing.
Separating Realdoll from Realbotix
The Realdoll sex robot brand is part of Realbotix, and that can be a problem when trying to sell wholesome customer-facing robots. There’s no mention of Realdoll on the main Realbotix website, and Realdolls aren’t shown at Realbotix showcases.
“It’s hard to do business with big corporate entities [like] hotel chains,” says McMullen. “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.”
That separation is set to continue, with Kiguel saying that Realdoll may be removed from the main Realbotix company completely. “I would imagine that in 12 months the structure of the two businesses will look very different,” he says.
Kiguel adds that Realdoll could become a standalone public company, merge with another ‘adult’ company, or split from Realbotix in some other way.
“The way the world is, we get stereotyped. The more a spotlight is shined on my previous endeavours, the more people assume there’s an adult aspect to this [Realbotix robots], which there isn’t,” McMullen says.
Sex robot limitations
McMullen also says he isn’t abandoning Realdoll, despite talk of separating it from Realbotix. “The brand has a rich legacy and a lot of potential,” he says. “I still have a vision for a very high quality product that elevates the experience.”
He has, however, been searingly honest about how far the sex robot industry is from producing a genuine fully-formed sex robot, with complex human-like body movement as well as AI chatbot ability. Sex robots, including Realdolls, are still primarily sex dolls, perhaps with AI heads attached and some perfunctory body movement and electric functions.
“We’re utilising sensory feedback to trigger responses in the [Realdoll] robot,” says McMullen. “We mostly focus on the robotic head, the AI, the ability to converse in a very unfiltered, ‘adult’ way. You’re able to have conversations with your doll… touch and have her respond. Continuing to advance that is enormous.”
How much is that robot in the window?
McMullen says that a big challenge in sex robot production is cost and pricing management. A Realbotix robot head unit costs from $20,000, but entire Realdoll sex robots with less sophisticated head units can sell for around $10,000. Even though that price point is considered premium for a sex robot, it’s far short of what it costs for a properly high-end full-body robot.
“The problem is: nobody wants to pay what it costs,” says McMullen. “They want to buy the disposable China [version]… to push a button and the doll makes a sound. Most people in that [sex robot] space are more inclined to buy a cheaper product and discard it after six months.”
McMullen adds that despite pricing challenges, the sex robot industry is “not going away”.
“It’s something you can’t do for 25 cents. You’re not going to have an impressive piece of robotics technology for cheap. I think the potential is there. I think the need is there. I think in ten years, you’re going to see sex robots – real ones. I may have been involved in some,” he says.
Kiguel believes that Realbotix humanoid robots, meanwhile, will be able to have their prices reduced from upwards of $175,000 to under $50,000 within “two to three years”.
He says: “It’s normal with new technology, the early adopters are going to pay more money, and as you scale and build more the prices will come down.”
The future of home humanoids
With all this talk of robots providing emotional support to humans, it’s easy to forget that, currently, you can spot that Aria is a robot a mile off. She can’t walk, her lips look a bit gammy, she follows conversation well but gives stock-like answers, and physically she looks like a prop.
Currently humanoid robots that can perform more impressive physical tasks, such as housework or running, sacrifice visual realism. Indeed, their creators rarely bother to make them look like anything other than “walking toasters”, to use a phrase of Kiguel’s.
Kiguel says the robot industry is still “far away” from producing a humanoid robot that can pass as human, both in terms of physical ability and appearance. He believes we are “five to ten years from having that all-purpose robot”.
“There’s a misconception that a robot… [that] will fold your laundry and wash your dishes and look very human is right around the corner,” he says.
But a robot that you can talk to and form a strong emotional bond with, after propping it up in the corner of your living room? Available now, it seems.
Leave a Reply