The world's first robotic girlfriend has hit the market.
We've been hearing a lot about robotic arms on the space shuttle, as well as robotic snakes and robotic birds and bugs. But now we're hearing about a robot worthy of being considered a companion.
A New Jersey-based company, TrueCompanion.com, has unveiled its talking robotic girlfriend. This is no life-size doll. Roxxxy the robot is designed with artificial intelligence and lifelike synthetic skin. At 5 feet, 7 inches tall, the robot can't walk or move its arms and legs, but it is designed to not only talk but carry on a conversation.
The robot, partially designed by Douglas Hines, a former engineer for Bell Labs, is also designed to have sex.
And while that may catch some people by surprise, a British researcher predicted two years ago that people would one day have robotic companions that they could fall in love with and marry. David Levy, a British artificial intelligence researcher who wrote the book Love and Sex with Robots, said people will be marrying robots by 2050. He also said late in 2007 that people would be having sexual relations with robots within five years.
So far, it looks like Levy's predictions are on track.
TrueCompanion.com didn't offer information on how complex a conversation Roxxxy can carry on. The company noted that the robot can remember the owner's name and "express her love to you and be your loving friend. She can talk to you, listen to you and feel your touch."
Levy had said in a previous interview that getting robots past walking with jerky movements would be the easier part of building artificial companions. The difficult part, he noted, would be creating an artificial intelligence system good enough to mimic a flowing, sophisticated conversation.
"There are already people who are producing fairly crude personalities and fairly crude models of human emotions now," Levy said in 2007. "This will be among the harder parts of this process. ... Human/computer conversation has attracted a lot of research attention since the 1950s, and it hasn't made as much progress as you'd expect in 50 years. But computers are so much more powerful now and memory is so much better ... so we'll see software that can have interesting, intelligent conversations."
Levy also estimated that robots will be able to have interesting conversations -- not yet at the level of a college graduate but enjoyable -- within 15 years. In 20 or 30 years, however, he expects them to carry on sophisticated conversations.
The company, which has worked on Roxxxy for the past two decades, said on its Web site that engineers are working on a male robotic companion called Rocky.
TrueCompanion.com hasn't responded to questions about how much the robots cost.
6. "RE: World's First Sexbot-for-Sale Rolls Out"
In response to message #5
She has teeth and the top of her head isn't flat, they obviously overlooked their market research...but I'll take the Angelino Jolie model please, make that two..
Seriously, American women should be quaking in their expensive little shoes, as a moderately de-bugged robot is significant competition.
The sad thing is, that in 1000 years when they have these things perfected, we won't be around to benefit.
"So, there was an overwhelming amount of noise a month ago about “Roxxxy” the “sex robot”. Where is she now? Well, I can tell you that she’s on sale right now; the price on TrueCompanion.com has been slashed by $500. Most importantly, what was the conclusion of all the hype? I had my own snarky review of the non-product that not only seemed to lag behind current sex dolls, virtual girlfriend AI and actual robots. You see, Roxxxy still isn’t actually a robot. No moving robotics in her lifeless body, kids. Did the media fact check the claims made by her maker? No, of course not — it’s sex, so no one had to bother." [more at link on top]
20. "RE: World's First Sexbot-for-Sale Rolls Out"
In response to message #0
In that first video, what's the deal with the recurring references to jet fuel, 9/11 and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories? Does Roxxy actually say that stuff, or was the video's soundtrack created by somebody lampooning the whole deal?
21. "RE: World's First Sexbot-for-Sale Rolls Out"
In response to message #0
How about the "real doll" as featured on Howard Stern and Lars and the Real Girl? For you high rollers with $6k, they say the mouth and vag feel as good as the real thing, and no talking back! C'mon, admit that you'd try it if someone dropped a big crate on your doorstep! Heck I would!
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