Sex Neuroscientist on the Scary Future of Sex Robots

the jogan experience I mean the first time I heard of a sex robot was probably maybe 10 years ago and it was this video and a bunch of people and I was in graduate school sent me this video because I knew what I I was studying sex and it was I don't know if you either of you Jamie has seen this video but it went viral and it was this early version of a sex robot but it was like the silicone face silicone face with a wig and she I'll say she was eating a banana

but she wasn't actually eating a banana and it was basically like this head attached to a stick and had a sheet over it and so you couldn't see the rest of the the robot you just saw the the face of it but then the the manufacturer shows you it's just like a a broomstick so what I thought was interesting is that even though it looks so hilariously bad that there was obviously a market for it because so many people were interested in looking at this video and also that people were buying this product but now

you fast forward I think it was like 5 years ago there's a huge um I would say not moral panic but people there's a lot more discussion about it they said the robots are coming I don't think the technology is quite there yet I wrote about it quite a bit at the time and now they're saying probably another year or two is going to be really coming in in terms of the popularity that these robots are going to be incorporated into everyday life in some cases because when I think of social media the internet AI

like you said is becoming so mainstream and so ubiquitous what's going to happen when we have these robots that are now being integrated into human life and what happens when the technology does get so good that you know they are more humanlike and they are able to meet people's emotional needs and maybe even physical needs what's going to happen to us then yeah we're going to stop breeding I mean maybe that's the the ai's plan it's to not exterminate the human race but to give them options so they just completely stop reproducing make the options

far more attractive and in a in a way we've kind of done that like with video games um like how and video games and just being online I mean I'm sure you've seen the statistics of how many people are single today and how many men have gone like more than a year without any sex yeah I the stats here it's like 30% of male Millennials and 20% of women it's wild yeah that's a lot it's crazy and what what what is taking the place of them going out and trying to find uh a mate what

is it well it's the internet it's video games it's being constantly stimulated by this artificial realm that you exist in when you're playing Call of Duty and it's uh you know interacting with people only online and not having to go out to have your just some sort of intellectual or some sort of social discourse connection yeah fulfilled in your life but it's only through this weird surface way do you think that AI video games that um not avoidance of in-person connection but that that fulfillment of connection through online means do you think that's going to

become a replacement for real life interaction eventually it will for a lot of people yeah I think there's going to be people that reject it there's going to be people that enjoy going outside and it's going to be you know it is now it's a thing where you know people post their social media they're out hiking you know and they're giving people advice like hey you know put your phone down go experience the real world but you know in a lot of cases it's falling on deaf ears because it's not as fulfilling for people that

are you know very um uncomfortable with social situations now and I think people young people in particular are more and more uncomfortable than ever before in those type of situations because they don't have any experience in them anymore and they're just most of the time they're not interacting with people my my real fear my genuine fear and I don't even know if it's a fear here my [Music] um my my my concern let me say that is that we're we're going to go extinct like that we're going to be replaced by an artificial life form

and I think that is probably what we do I think it probably exists elsewhere in the universe as well that we find out that the the confines of biological beings and the limitations of their ability to evolve physically they're so slow to adapt you know to go from a single celled organism to a professor at Harvard is a long [ __ ] sludge through evolutionary history it took a long time to get to this point but to go from an Atari uh pong computer to artificial general intelligence is only a few decades it's very quick

and when that does happen and when you see these robots but now these robots are not this generation but five generations later or maybe AI figures out all the problems with these robots and makes exmachina when you get like that who's the woman the really hot lady Alia viander yeah will you get one of those that was an amazing movie amazing movie scary so scary and I think that's coming I mean I think when that movie came out that was like sort of like abstract like oh yeah that's not really going to happen but now

that's what I used to think I thought no this is like people are it's overblown but I don't know now I don't know now either I think it's happening I think it's going to happen and I think that's what the human race does and I think that's why we have this insatiable thirst for technological innovation that it's like literally hardwired into us to build something better so I mean I would love to talk to more people who are in the industry working on this stuff because I know many people they're doing it secretly and hiding

CU they're is so much stigma around doing anything with an application to sex or sexuality so people I've talked to who work in technology they will usually have one business that is you know doing really well that's forward- facing and then they'll usually use that same technology in the sexuality capacity but that side of things they don't really advertise and you know they don't really talk too much about it unless it's with someone like me they know they trust me and they know that you know I'll talk to people off the Record even if they

prefer that confidentiality but I'm just curious to understand you know what is it like working that industry and what direction is the technology going in because I consider myself to be pretty open-minded and I just I just want to understand what's actually happening and what's what's going to be the result of that because you see people who were really upset a couple years ago saying like the robots are going to increase sexual violence they're going to make people objectify women and I do think that for people who already have those views about women you know

maybe they might be a little bit more not so nice but I don't think the average person is going to be turned into this horrible monster because of this technology but you know now it's becoming so mainstream I don't know you know I'm always open to changing my mind as well so I'm curious to to hear what people think about it well don't you think that just like social media kind of stunts people's ability to communicate in real life that sex robots will stunt people's ability to have a real meaningful romantic relationship with someone I

think if you've never been with someone or if you are particularly self fish probably cuz I I previously thought most people will prefer a real life person to a robot and I also thought the technology is so far off that like the early prototypes of these robots were not really that um convincing we'll say so I didn't think that we'd get to a point where it would be comparable but we are we are getting there what is the state-of-the-art of sex robots in December of 2023 what can we see something what does it look like

I mean they look re like pretty good physically they look I mean they're obviously not made of human flesh but they look pretty similar to a human being and you can customize it you can change various parts pretty much any part of the body you can make it exactly what you want which I understand why some people find that offensive because they're saying a woman is not just an amalgamation of parts that you pick and choose as to your liking I totally get that yeah but it's not a really really a woman I mean that's

like saying you know oh a car is not an amalgamation of Parts you shouldn't be able to pick the wheels like what but I [ __ ] car like that's not a real woman that's a robot like at what point unless it gets to a person you know or if someone's comparing their partner to a robot or a doll like that's not okay that's that's gross Behavior well it's also what's going on with young kids they're comparing themselves to people that are using filters and thinning their waist and widening their hips and doing all these

things with apps that are not representative of most biological human beings and you know that's what and hate talked about that it's causing all this self harm and disdain it's like it's it's a weird place we're in that's never been really traversed before with human society as far as we know has never gone through anything like this before I was reading a statistic yesterday that one in 10 adolescents has considered suicide which is that that's terrifying that's really really sad wow what did it used to be I'm not sure I'll find out so what is

like what's the company what is one company that has the state-of-the-art sex robot so we could look it up can I reveal it to you at a later date cuz I I want see it I know you do but there's one company that I was talking to qu like I knew quite well but they've since gone under because of the stigma they were being harassed the family was being harassed so they said we're we're not making these anymore oh well they're not around anymore so let's talk about them what if I show you one without

we just don't say the name I just put this up online and you can tell if this if there's better or worse than okay I think that's silly but let's go okay yeah this wait this is a robot e Jesus yep they have some sort of AI in it it says that feel connected with sense X mobile app oh this so this is a real doll so they used to have those real dolls and they used to just be silicone right they were just like still it's still the same thing it's still the same thing

but now it talks yeah and how much does it do uh I don't let's see a video Go full [Music] screen I'm not showing this on the air no okay good no cuz it's yeah I get it's a little graphic so we're looking at body parts I am NOA I am Harmony I am Solana we are part of you think it's weird they give them stri names driven robotic dolls and they're here to become your perfect companion wo our time together will be magical you have never met anyone like us before we have remarkable unprecedented

features like a modular head system that allows us to create a multitude of Expressions we blink we move we speak and we do it all just for you our faces can easily be swap to accommodate your desires my lifp syn mechanisms allow me to interact with you ver our bodies are skillfully and carefully crafted down to the most delicate details what if I told you that I could feel you that's right with sensory of grades I consent I will be able to react to your every touch it's so funny cuz as a former sex researcher

this doesn't have any effect on me at all one that has never before been possible but are they moving this is the thing those were all just stationary yeah currently they're stationary but so they're stationary and they just talk it says there's some sort of articulation but I mean up walk articulation articulate but but I think they will be able to move on their own in the coming years right because this used to be just a doll and now it moves around a little the neck moves articulating neck real doll can turn left right up

and down the body the real skillfully cled finest details although it's not equipped with animatronic Parts yet it can be positioned in MO moved in hundreds of positions so the bodies can't move yet but the heads can move but that's just a matter of time right didn't used to be the bodies or the heads didn't used to move they used to just be like and now you know used to be a blowup doll yeah like that company is on has been doing quite a bit it's pretty cool weird I mean you guys should get one

for the studio yeah no not for use I meant just to like hang well even hanging around it would be [ __ ] creepy it's gone one day we're just going to wonder who took it yeah yeah what if it smells weird like someone do something to this um how much they cost a couple thousand dollar I think depends on how how advanced you want it to be grand eight grand up to up to 600 to 8 Grand I'm seeing different $600 to8 Grand yeah yeah oh what's the upgrade what he what do he get

more articulation more voices and I don't know you can get cheaper models but they're not as high quality okay so that's the state-ofthe-art essentially yeah well 600 isn't even a full thing it's just like a full just the head no it's just the f a flashlight version oh okay whole so at one point in time we're probably going to be looking at someone that looks like that lady from exmachina that is a a sex robot and probably knows how to manipulate you and play games with you and excite you and taunt you and woo yeah

it's going to be great