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IT鈥橲 too late for this year, but if you find yourself without a partner next Valentine鈥檚 day, you might be able to get one made to order. By the end of 2017, a California-based company promises to have a lifelike, artificially intelligent, 鈥渟ex capable鈥� robot woman ready for sale.

Sex robots inevitably prompt tabloid titters, but their imminent arrival also raises serious questions. Ethical concerns about how they will change attitudes to sex and relationships abound, as well as what impact they will have on existing prejudices. Take, for example, the ethical critiques posed by the Campaign Against Sex Robots, which argues that building an army of hyper-realistic Stepford wives will amplify existing sexist views.

But some technologists raise another objection, which could alter the playing field entirely and change the kind of questions we need to ask: the sheer failure of imagination. We are entering a brave new world of human-robot relations 鈥� why waste cutting-edge robotics and AI on machines that simply re-enact our stalest clich茅s and prejudices? The calls to diversify sex robots raise the question: should they really look human at all? The answer depends who you ask.

Picture a sex robot, and you probably imagine a scantily clad, animatronic porn star, in all likelihood female, with perfect proportions, flawless skin and a passive demeanour. It doesn鈥檛 look much like a robot.

This is the creature Abyss Creations plans to unveil this year. Abyss is better known for its life-sized, silicone 鈥渓ove dolls鈥� (mainly female) called RealDolls. They can鈥檛 move or speak, but for around $7000, their appearance can be customised down to the colour of the nail polish.

鈥淭he head will be able to have conversations, text you at work and welcome you home after a long day鈥�

Unlike these inert dolls, the distinguishing characteristic of the coming 鈥淩ealbotix鈥� line will be its mind 鈥� an artificial intelligence that can interact with its user. The first stage will be an app released in April. To begin with, this will let users create a purely digital woman鈥檚 persona, assigning values to a range of traits including 鈥渙utgoing鈥�, 鈥渟hy鈥�, or 鈥渋ntellectual鈥�.

Making love machines

Later this year, the firm plans to implant that virtual personality into a robotic head (prototype pictured above), which will snap onto the body of an existing RealDoll. The head will be able to make different facial expressions to reflect this personality, and communicate via a voice interface. Similar to a voice assistant like the Amazon Echo, it will use machine learning, speech recognition and text-to-speech software running in the cloud to understand and respond to its user (personal information will be stored locally on the device for privacy).

The eventual plan is to roboticise the doll鈥檚 entire body, but Abyss CEO Matt McMullen thinks that to mimic natural human interaction, the head is the priority. 鈥淧eople spend far more time looking at each other from the neck up,鈥� he says. 鈥淗aving a robot that can actually look at you, and look around the room, and communicate with you is infinitely more interesting than, say, a body that can perform sexual gyrations.鈥�

The head will be able to have conversations on a range of topics, text you while you鈥檙e at work and welcome you home after a long day. Essentially, Abyss Creations is not trying to make a sex robot but a complete robotic woman 鈥� an AI 鈥済irlfriend experience鈥� where you call the shots and loyalty is hardwired. 鈥淪ome people struggle with forming intimate connections with other people,鈥� says McMullen.

It鈥檚 not hard to imagine the possible objections to this. Kathleen Richardson, founder of the , thinks the dolls reflect misogynistic attitudes that objectify women and 鈥渞einforce this idea that women are primarily for sex鈥�. Abyss does plan to make a male version of the robot eventually, but McMullen says that most customers for RealDolls are heterosexual men, which is why the company decided to kick off the RealBotix campaign with a female robot.

鈥淲hy waste cutting-edge robotics and AI on devices that simply re-enact stale clich茅s and prejudices?鈥�

Ethical problems aside, Lynne Hall at the University of Sunderland, UK, has a more pragmatic objection to humanoid sex robots: the technology just isn鈥檛 there yet. At this point, it鈥檚 hard enough to make a bipedal robot that can climb stairs, never mind one that could pass a Turing test in the bedroom. More to the point, even when robots look nearly lifelike on the surface, as soon as they move or speak, they become unconvincing, and this 鈥�uncanny valley鈥� effect can make them more off-putting than sexy. In other words, these won鈥檛 exactly be Westworld.

If robotic imitations are so unconvincing, says Hall, then why, in a world of hook-up apps, would you pay thousands for this second-rate experience? She advocates breaking the mould with something altogether different.

A robot鈥檚 form, says Hall, should follow its function. 鈥淚f you think about everything else that robots do 鈥� a robot hoover looks like a hoover,鈥� she says. 鈥淲hy would a sex robot need to take on the physical appearance of a person?鈥�

This raises a question robotics researchers were hotly debating at the Congress on Love and Sex with Robots in London last December: what exactly is the difference between a sex robot and a sex toy? Key to a sex robot, Hall suggests, is a level of autonomy or intelligence that propels it beyond mere sex toys. Rather than having buttons that correspond to specific pre-programmed actions, it should be able to make its own decisions on how to act, perhaps by responding to voice cues or biofeedback, or by employing machine learning to understand what you like.

鈥淭his ability to act gives the robot agency in that it is a separate entity acting in the context, whereas the sex toy is being used,鈥� she says.

This definition doesn鈥檛 rule out humanoid sex robots, but nor does it limit the other forms they can take. Trouble is, the idea of a non-human sex robot is so new that no one has yet built one. , a lecturer in computing at Goldsmiths, University of London, suggests looking at soft robotics 鈥� which uses things like flexible polymers and fluids rather than rigid parts. There are also a variety of human-computer interfaces to consider (see 鈥�Brave new sex tech鈥�).

Hall imagines e-textiles 鈥� fabrics that contain digital components 鈥� playing a role, perhaps in conjunction with teledildonics (remotely controlled sex toys) or virtual reality. More satisfying than shagging a robotic doll could be pulling on your smart 鈥渟ex pyjamas鈥� that know the best way to stimulate you, while you immerse yourself in the scene of Casino Royale where James Bond emerges from the ocean in his tight trunks.

Beyond humanoid

Or perhaps you want the independent intelligence animating your sex robot to be wholly non-human. At a held alongside the Congress, one team created a robotic sex device called Ride the Market, Fuck the System 鈥� a fist that vibrates according to fluctuations of the stock market. Its makers say it allows people to 鈥減hysically experience鈥� economic data.

Once liberated from the constraint that sex robots need to fit into a humanoid mould, there鈥檚 no limit to the bizarre possibilities that could emerge. Trudy Barber at the University of Portsmouth, UK, imagines a scenario in the more distant future involving nanobots. For example, Barber envisages ingestible nanobots that could stimulate 鈥渁 sense of orgasmic pleasure in any body part when it is touched鈥�.

Not everyone is convinced that weirder is better when it comes to sex robots. McMullen thinks they have to have at least some human-like features, or we simply won鈥檛 be attracted to them. 鈥淲e could make sex-capable robots with seven legs and tentacles and two heads,鈥� he says. 鈥淚 just don鈥檛 know that people would want to have sex with them.鈥�

But maybe it鈥檚 worth finding out. Hall thinks that badly replicating the kind of sex we can already have with each other is not only a pointless endeavour 鈥� it could be missing a trick. One way or another, robots will help shape a brave new future for sex. Instead of sticking to the same old routines, shouldn鈥檛 they introduce new experiences we haven鈥檛 even thought of? 鈥淲e鈥檙e so functionally fixed on the human body and human representation,鈥� says Hall. 鈥淲e鈥檙e not thinking, 鈥楥ould sex actually be better?'鈥�

This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淔resh face for sex robots鈥�