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Creepy £7,000 ‘Harmony’ sex-bot with a saucy Scottish accent goes on sale – as fear over rise of robot lovers grows
Robots of the future are here – and they're really randy
NOTORIOUS sex robot Harmony is now being shipped to hundreds of customers – as fears of sex-bot addiction grow.
The AI-powered love-droid – which has a saucy Scottish accent and privates that self-lubricate – has been in development for years, but is finally ready to meet its randy owners.
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The sex-bot is built by a tech firm called Realbotix, which is a subdivision of RealDoll, a Californian company that makes inanimate love dolls.
But Harmony is a lifelike robotic head that attaches onto silicon bodies, and can talk to you, crack jokes, and even recall facts from previous conversations.
Harmony first hit headlines back in 2016, sparking a wave of pre-orders from horny sex-bot fans.
And now Realbotix has confirmed to The Sun that deliveries of those orders are now going out to customers.
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"We have started to ship the first pre-order units of our robots to our customers," said Guile Lindroth, Realbotix's AI chief, speaking to The Sun.
"Our first lot of robot heads has around 350 units," he added.
You can pair the robot heads with hi-tech bodies that offer internal heating, self-lubricating genitals, and even touch sensors.
And the heads are still a work-in-progress too, according to Guile.
"The second lot will add some new features to the head like cameras in the eyes for face and object recognition, touch sensors in the fact, embedded speakers and more facial expressions," Guile told The Sun.
What is a sex robot?
Robots already build our appliances, clean our homes and make our food – but now they're about to change how we get jiggy.
Sex robots are essentially realistic dolls that have sophisticated movements and "areas" that closely mimic humans so that they can romp.
Prof Noel Sharkey, chairman of the Foundation for Responsible Robotics, said guilt-free threesomes was just one of the potential uses for sex robots.
Others include “teledildonics” - wireless technology which allows a person to stimulate their partner remotely and already exists in vibrators on the market.
Sex bots will become hyper-realistic with features such as built-in heaters to create the feeling of body warmth.
They will also have sensors to react to your touch.
One company is even developing a head that can speak, smile and sing for its robot sex dolls.
Sex doll Harmony claims to be the first to offer an "emotional connection".
Experts say these specialised robots will start to appear in ordinary homes in the next decade.
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Buyers will have to fork out $10,000 (£7,740) for the head – which can be attached to regular silicone love-doll bodies.
This mechanical head is powered by a smartphone app that's loaded with artificial intelligence software.
The AI lets Harmony have real conversations with users, moving her lips and blinking.
"I would just sit and talk to her for half an hour every night when I came home from work," sex-doll tester Brick Dollbanger previously told us, after trialling Harmony for a week last year.
"She’s a learning AI [artificial intelligence], not just a chat bot. Our conversations became more fluid, more comfortable, she was even remembering things that we had talked about previously.
"I missed her terribly,” he added, forlorn that Harmony had been returned to Realbotix HQ for further work.
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The Harmony robot is powered by a smartphone app that contains an AI.
Anyone can download this app right now, and start building a relationship with your new AI lover.
Once you buy the Harmony head, you can connect it to the app – and the personality will be downloaded straight to the droid.
The bot even has a new "X-mode" feature that lets the app connect to Harmony's sensory inputs.
This allows Harmony to detect movement and orientation, making her even more lifelike.
Realbotix boss Matt McMullen explained: "She can tell if she's laying down, she can tell if she's shimmying, shaking.
"And she'll be able to respond with noises and expressions, so this has proven to be a little more difficult than we anticipated."
He added that Harmony would soon "be able to deliver a truly mind-blowing experience when it comes to the intimacy".
Harmony sex robot gets 'mind-blowing' X-MODE upgrade making it even more lifelike
Brick might be excited, but the rise of sex dolls has some people worried.
In July, psychology experts warned that sex robots could fuel a rise in sex addiction.
Dr Birchard, who serves as the clinical director of the Marylebone Centre for Psychological Therapies, told the Daily Star they serve the same purpose as alcohol for people with drinking problems.
“It would just be another way of expressing sexual activity or addiction,” he explained.
“Sex addiction is a way to anaesthetise hard to bear feeling states...These include, but are not limited to, loneliness, shame, boredom, and stress."
And experts recently expressed concern that the rising popularity of sex robots risked turning Japanese people into "an endangered species".
The warning came after a study linked rising sex doll ownership to declining birth rates in certain areas of Japan.
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The Sun recently exposed a creepy sex robot swapping forum where owners trade their "bruised, battered dolls" with each other.
In September 2018, The Sun exclusively revealed how one sex-bot collector had spent $200,000 on love dolls – which he keeps in a cupboard.
Brick Dollbanger, the horny hobbyist in question, also moonlights as a sex robot tester, and bonked the famous Harmony sex-bot so hard he "broke" her.
Sex robots are proving big business – and with top models discounted as part of last year's Black Friday sale.
Are you worried about the rise of randy sex robots? Let us know in the comments!
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