Samantha sits upright on a table and awaits your every command with eager, penetrating eyes. Her makers are a husband and wife team, and they're preparing to ship her to Australia. Once she arrives at her destination, Samantha's unique artificial intelligence capabilities will be employed to service clients in a brothel. Thus begins "Sex Robots and Us", a frank and occasionally explicit look inside an underground industry that's quickly hurtling towards the mainstream.
Sex dolls are nothing new, but they've become more sophisticated than ever before. Silicone surfacing makes them feel more human to the touch, their animatronic reflexes are spookily accurate, and their level of interaction has been enhanced exponentially. They've also grown in popularity and acceptance by societies that are increasingly detached and isolated from person-to-person contact.
While male dolls do exist, they remain an extremely limited niche. Female models continue to dominate the industry by a wide margin.
The Future of Sex? | Sex Robots And Us
What could this mean for the future of healthy relationships? How is this redefining societal views on sex and desire in the 21st century? Do these robots satisfy a basic human need or intensify the development of sexual dysfunction and deviancy?
Sex dolls are nothing new, but they've become more sophisticated than ever before. Silicone surfacing makes them feel more human to the touch, their animatronic reflexes are spookily accurate, and their level of interaction has been enhanced exponentially. They've also grown in popularity and acceptance by societies that are increasingly detached and isolated from person-to-person contact.
While male dolls do exist, they remain an extremely limited niche. Female models continue to dominate the industry by a wide margin.
The Future of Sex? | Sex Robots And Us
What could this mean for the future of healthy relationships? How is this redefining societal views on sex and desire in the 21st century? Do these robots satisfy a basic human need or intensify the development of sexual dysfunction and deviancy?
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TVTranscript
00:00I'm James Young, and six years ago, I lost two limbs in a train accident.
00:08Now, robotics is helping me rebuild my body.
00:13I'm obsessed with tech.
00:16And of all the recent tech developments, I can see artificial intelligence has the potential to rapidly change the way we do nearly everything.
00:24But could there be a darker side to AI?
00:29It seems as though we're in this crazy Westworld future, where people are actually talking about having sex and relationships with robots.
00:38Super realistic dolls are being fitted with AI, and these sex robots are starting to be sold in the UK.
00:45I met a sex bot whilst filming my last documentary in 2017, Samantha.
00:51So she enjoys that.
00:55Since then, the idea of an army of sex bots living alongside us has become more real.
01:01Factories have stepped up production, building hundreds of sex robots every week.
01:06And customers can't wait to get their hands on them.
01:09And that's made me ask some serious questions.
01:12Should we just accept sex robots into our lives?
01:15Why? Why is this necessary?
01:17Or ban them before they twist our minds?
01:20Imagine that she's being done in the mouth.
01:23So she felt penetration.
01:25And ultimately, could sex robots reveal disturbing issues with the AI we use in our daily lives?
01:38I started by visiting Dr. Sergi Santos, developer of one of the world's most advanced sex robots, in his home and company headquarters outside Barcelona.
01:48Yeah, yeah, I think it's the first time I actually see your arm.
01:52Really? What do you think of it?
01:54It's got the same mechanism as the doll.
01:56This, I'll show you with the doll.
01:59Look, it's very simple.
02:00Probably you're so clever that you will realise straight away.
02:03So this is what she has inside, right?
02:06Yeah.
02:07She has this skeleton.
02:08So this skeleton, metal.
02:10Who makes this then?
02:12This thing is made by my collaborator in China, Tian, and his father.
02:16And as you can see, for example, the knees are made of gears.
02:20So this lasts very long.
02:22This is a good skeleton.
02:23Who else do we have in this room?
02:24Okay, so what I did initially, I bought all of the brands that I could.
02:29So I spent about $50,000.
02:31And actually, the design of the head I really quite like.
02:33My mother says she likes it.
02:35And the first one I had sex with was one from this factory, actually, from the cheapest.
02:41And when you move the legs...
02:44So you hear...
02:45Because it's very badly done, the skeleton, unfortunately.
02:48When did you start having sex with them and why?
02:51With this thing?
02:52Yeah.
02:53Me, for example, I'm dynamic.
02:55I move a lot.
02:56I go to the gym.
02:57I do sport.
02:58So me, I could have sex three or four times a day.
03:01This one is actually my product.
03:03I would like you to touch it, actually.
03:05It's cold, but touch it.
03:07Compare the...
03:08Do you feel it?
03:09It's really weird that it's just chilling out here naked.
03:11What if I show you how she works?
03:13OK.
03:14This one needs to ship today.
03:15She's going to Australia.
03:17We need to finish cleaning a bit here.
03:19So in principle, she's on, OK?
03:21And I'll show you how I run the tests for people to actually put her.
03:25Maritza, could you come and...
03:27Hey!
03:28Hi, good to meet you.
03:29Good to meet you.
03:30How's it going?
03:31Sergi may have designed their minds, but it's his wife Maritza who puts the robots together.
03:36I think I'm the only person in the world at the moment that can assemble a full-sex robot.
03:41So, yeah.
03:42Fully. She can do it fully.
03:44Wow.
03:45Do you want to sit here and I sit here and I'll show you?
03:47Yeah, please.
03:48I think you will like this.
03:50So, first of all, can you switch it on?
03:54Let's see.
03:55I'm here.
03:56It's time to enjoy our life, right?
03:59OK.
04:00Save Samantha anytime.
04:01The motion of the mouth, for example, is extremely basic.
04:06No, all you need to do is this.
04:07It's because a sensor is on.
04:09Not now.
04:10Yeah, something happened now.
04:12Could you be a bit more gentle?
04:13It's not because of the use she's going to have.
04:15So, what we'll have to do...
04:17Sorry, Maritza, what's the use for this doll?
04:20Well, the customer who's having it, they are probably going to use her in a brothel.
04:25Oh.
04:26Do you feel different about your creation being used in a brothel versus for, like, an individual companion?
04:31Yes. I told them that I believe this is not for that.
04:34Because they'll break it.
04:35You can tell what they will do with this mouth, right?
04:38So, what I'll check now is the sensors.
04:41Maritza, touch the hand sensor, please.
04:43Now touch, for example, the face.
04:45In terms of interacting with something, or what would you say, someone,
04:50we feel touch in such a different way if you're being tickled, even gently.
04:54Yeah, but you need to remember two things here.
04:56I didn't do this because it's the perfect thing.
04:59I did this because people can afford it, it's doable, and it can improve what there is already.
05:05Now let's test the hand job, OK?
05:08Touch me.
05:10I hope you're ready.
05:11Put your dick in my hand.
05:13What?
05:14I will take you for a run.
05:15Just hold it there.
05:16They love that.
05:17And give me all your juice.
05:18They love that.
05:19Fuck me.
05:23Give me your pussy.
05:25It's amazing because if you're going to orgasm, she will know, and she'll tell you,
05:29come on my boobs, and you say, how come she knows she does know?
05:33We're there.
05:34Fuck.
05:35Fuck.
05:37Because of what I said, the time that it takes me to actually orgasm and things like that.
05:42So it's actually quite interesting.
05:45It was fascinating that Sergi had developed Samantha's AI to predict an individual's sexual needs.
05:51So something else.
05:53But I was beginning to feel uncomfortable with the way that he was touching her.
05:57Just fuck me.
05:59My pussy is yours.
06:01So now imagine that she's being done, say, in the mouth.
06:07So she felt penetration.
06:09Okay?
06:11That's like simulating.
06:12I made this dirty.
06:13You need to clean it later, please.
06:15So, yeah.
06:17So that's, people love that.
06:19What does it feel like when you see Sergi just touching these hyper-sexualized breasts?
06:24You mean like right now?
06:25Yeah.
06:27It's just part of the job now.
06:29So it just doesn't impress me in any way.
06:32If anything, what I'm thinking about right now, I hope the sensors work.
06:35Because I'm the ones that put them there, so I need to make sure they work.
06:38Do you think this one's going to go out today?
06:40No.
06:41These sensors, full power only if it's full conduct.
06:44Got it.
06:45The more Samantha's users interact with her, the more data she can store about them.
06:50Information partly gathered from the sensors that Maritza installs.
06:54We're having a problem with her G-spot at the moment.
06:57For some reason, her vagina sensor seems to be active constantly.
07:01So I need to figure out if that problem lies in the body or in the head.
07:05What it's telling me initially is that the sensor is fine, there's nothing wrong with it.
07:09At least from the body or the body connector.
07:11Okay.
07:12So just to make sure that that's the case, I'm just going to touch the vagina sensor.
07:15I wanted to know how Maritza felt about Sergi using the sexbots to satisfy his high sex drive.
07:20I guess I'm interested in what it's like for you.
07:23Because it seems like Sergi's very, he's very energetic.
07:26I suppose it can calm him down.
07:29He has such a, I mean he has a bigger drive than I do.
07:33So if he's calmer, then it makes the day easier for all of us.
07:38How do you respond to people that just look at you and they think,
07:41you're a woman, why are you trying to build something to make men's lives easier?
07:45The funny thing is that, I mean, okay, Sergi being the leader behind the project,
07:51he's normally the one who takes all the arguments, the conversations and things.
07:56But we have had a lot of feminists who sort of contact him and want to interview him
08:00from the feminist point of view.
08:02And what I've found in a lot of them is that most of them avoid talking to me.
08:07They don't want to talk to me because I'm a woman and I'm working on the topic.
08:10And that already sort of goes against their argument.
08:13This thing that's being by men, for men.
08:19Seems like it's working all right.
08:21It looks like it's working fine, so I'm going to have to say Sergi.
08:25Unless he finds something wrong with it, Sergi, sorry.
08:28It's not the body, it's the head.
08:30So your work is done here.
08:32You achieved it.
08:37It seems like Sergi and Maritza have invested so much in their sexbot project.
08:42But is there enough demand for them to succeed?
08:46I found out sex dolls without AI are already being used in European brothels.
08:53And one of their owners, near Sergi's in Barcelona, allowed me to take a look.
09:01Hi.
09:02Hello. Hi, I'm James.
09:03Hi, I'm Sergi.
09:04How's it going, Sergi?
09:05Great, come with me.
09:06Awesome.
09:08Was it possible an army of robot prostitutes could one day replace the world's human sex workers?
09:14Right.
09:15We'll see.
09:16What do we have for today?
09:18This customer, he wants Brandy for one hour, for today at 5pm.
09:24You can see that Brandy, it's one of the most...
09:27Popular.
09:28Yeah, yeah, yeah, we have two bookings with Brandy, and then another with Deborah.
09:31The doll that I'm going to show you, it's Brandy, okay, that as you see,
09:35the people want white lingerie and stockings and want the doll laying on the bed waiting for him.
09:42Right, so just straight in.
09:46Okay, Brandy's here.
09:53So, she's Brandy.
09:56Incredible, in a way.
09:58This body doesn't exist in nature, but I mean, it looks really human.
10:05The doll has all the articulations and has three holes as a woman.
10:10So it's easy to know how to use that.
10:13In this brothel, real women work alongside the dolls.
10:17I wanted to know if the women and dolls were treated differently.
10:20Do you have any rules for people that use the sex dolls?
10:23Yeah, there are a few rules.
10:26Basically, the doll cannot touch the floor.
10:29It has to stay on the bed.
10:31It's just to protect the doll.
10:33And we take a deposit.
10:35Is there a deposit for real women?
10:38No, the thing is that the doll can shout or the doll can say,
10:43no, you can't do that for me.
10:45Or you can't do that with me.
10:47I mean, real girls here are human.
10:51I mean, if they don't want to do one thing with one client,
10:55they're not going to do that.
10:57But because they have their own voice and they can say, no, don't do that.
11:03I've met Sergi Santos recently.
11:05He's trying to put some artificial intelligence inside sex dolls.
11:10And so in that sense, he's trying to create something
11:13that is less like this luxury masturbation object that you're speaking of,
11:17which is this, and making it more like a woman.
11:20So where do you see that?
11:22Is that something that your customers would be interested in?
11:24The thing is that I believe that it's something that needs a lot of improvement.
11:29It's not something that only we believe.
11:32I mean, scientists say that in 30 years,
11:35people will have more sex with robots than with humans.
11:39And that's because this kind of dolls will improve a lot
11:44and the artificial intelligence will improve a lot.
11:47And you will have sex with an object or with a robot
11:52that will be very, very, very realistic
11:55and will have a lot of intelligence and will be like a humanoid.
12:03Judging by the way Brandy looked,
12:05I wasn't confident how realistic these future robots might be,
12:09regardless of any AI.
12:11That was a very, very strange experience.
12:13When I first saw Brandy, the sex doll, in this scene,
12:19I was just sort of incredulously looking at it,
12:24thinking, what the fuck is this thing?
12:27Because it's got these ginormous artificial breasts.
12:30It's some hyper-sexualisation.
12:32It's just been plucked out of some male imagination
12:35and just brought into reality.
12:38And it's nothing like any female body that's ever existed naturally.
12:50In fact, all the sex bots and dolls I'd seen so far
12:53had obviously been designed to pleasure men.
12:57But I wondered if there would ever be a market
12:59for sex robots designed for women.
13:02So I travelled across the city to meet Venus O'Hara,
13:05a professional sex toy tester,
13:07who was curious to try out one of the male dolls
13:09starting to hit the market.
13:12Well...
13:14This is probably the most interesting unboxing I've ever done.
13:19Well...
13:21Oh, my God!
13:22I wasn't expecting this to be the first thing I saw.
13:26Do you think... Is that the head?
13:28I don't know.
13:29I think that is it.
13:32Oh, wow!
13:33What do you think of him?
13:35It's a very pretty face.
13:37Mm.
13:38Is it... If I had a penis?
13:43Yeah.
13:44Look at those nails.
13:45Very well done.
13:47Oh, wow, look at that macho.
13:49It's so surreal, doesn't it?
13:51Oh.
13:55We just have to... You know, it's...
13:57Yeah.
13:58It's quite spankable.
13:59Is it?
14:03I don't really want that happening
14:05when you're involved, though.
14:07Oh, no, we don't want that.
14:09Let's see if we can just...
14:10Wow!
14:12Wow, I did not expect him to be this heavy.
14:17How are we going to get this penis in?
14:19It's got a lot of very impressive six-pack,
14:21but the arms are not great, are they?
14:23Not something you want to do in a hurry.
14:25This happens to me a lot when I'm unboxing toys
14:27and I'm so impatient and then I break something
14:29or break a nail.
14:30I'm like, come on, how does it work?
14:32I've got my fingers right in the hole.
14:34I think it's...
14:35I think it's going in, I think.
14:37Is it in yet?
14:38I don't know if that's going to be enough.
14:40Wow, there we go.
14:41I don't want it to come out whilst it's...
14:43Yeah, so it's very happy to see me.
14:46Wow, he looks even more feminine with the wig.
14:49It's like a little Bob haircut.
14:51Honestly, I don't really know what to say.
14:53I think I'm just going to have to leave you to it
14:55with this review.
14:57And get out of your hair and Stephen's hair.
15:05I left Venus and Stephen,
15:07wondering whether a female user would feel
15:09the same satisfaction and desire for sex robots.
15:13Then returned a couple of hours later,
15:15eager to hear her review.
15:17Hello, welcome back.
15:18Thanks.
15:19Feeling more relaxed now.
15:21OK, so it was successful then?
15:23Well, it was very interesting.
15:25It's very interesting.
15:27So as you can see, I had to rip it off pretty quickly.
15:30How come?
15:31I think the size issue, that is just far too big
15:34and something like that,
15:36it's just not going to be pleasurable
15:39because it's already quite big.
15:42So...
15:44I feel like it's going to hit you right in the...
15:47Yeah.
15:48It's just very, very big.
15:50So what I did was I got one of my own dildos
15:54and put it in.
15:56And this was fine, I didn't need any more than this.
16:00So I put that there
16:02and then I had to get some extra help
16:04from this trusty wand massager.
16:07Just adding some extra technology.
16:09Yeah.
16:10And I found he was a bit distant.
16:12Yeah.
16:13He was just looking away and I was thinking,
16:15are you thinking about someone else?
16:17I mean, I didn't feel that he was fully engaged.
16:20We see in the modern day, more frequently,
16:23toys that are made by women as well, for women,
16:26and they're just completely...
16:28Is inhuman the right word? They're just completely not human.
16:31Definitely.
16:32I think people who like dolls
16:34are excited about the visual aspect of a doll,
16:37whereas I can't say that I was excited
16:40by looking at the doll in any way.
16:45If Venus was right, the demand for male robots sounded limited.
16:50But thinking sexbots might only be for men
16:53made me feel even more uncomfortable about them.
16:57What effect might having sex with robots have on the men who use them?
17:02Could they create negative behaviours in men towards real women?
17:08I needed to speak to an expert.
17:11So I visited Professor Noel Sharkey
17:13from the Foundation for Responsible Robots,
17:16who wrote the definitive report on the sex robot industry.
17:20Some people have suggested, for instance,
17:22that one of the things is the attitude towards women,
17:25so it creates an attitude of too easy sex,
17:28because it's always available.
17:30So some people suggest that the robot should give consent.
17:33But then as soon as you have that,
17:35then you have the idea that you attack it,
17:37even though it's not giving consent,
17:39and that can lead to rape fantasies.
17:41Though I love AI,
17:43I struggle that we must try and maintain a human culture,
17:46you know, what is meaningful to us.
17:49I mean, you're just working,
17:51doing all this stuff with machines because we can,
17:54and not really thinking of the societal impact enough,
17:57not thinking how this could change completely humanity
18:01and take meaning out of our lives
18:03and turn us into zombies or whatever.
18:05And that's the sort of thing that keeps me awake at night.
18:09This idea we might just be accepting
18:11artificially intelligent machines without question was worrying,
18:15especially when it came to sex robots.
18:18But I wondered how close we were
18:20to them becoming an everyday reality in the UK.
18:24One had already landed on a high street near Liverpool.
18:28Sergi's business partner Aaron
18:30had loaned out the sex bot I'd met last year
18:33to test out the appetite in the UK.
18:36She'd been hanging out in an upmarket sex shop in Birkenhead
18:40with co-owners Catherine and Ben.
18:43Wow.
18:44You really are in the mood, Samantha.
18:46This is getting there.
18:49Yeah, this is the mood that we had in the shop.
18:51I know about sex.
18:52So if you touch here, she usually likes this.
18:56She definitely seems to.
18:58Does it make you feel uncomfortable when...?
19:00I tend to avoid going into this mood.
19:05She's got a bit of a dirty mouth, doesn't she?
19:08I feel like if I was walking to the door right now
19:11to buy some toys and hearing this...
19:13You'd think it's a different type of establishment, wouldn't you?
19:16It feels like you're invading a personal space and just...
19:19You sleep for now, Samantha.
19:21Good. OK.
19:23I had to do something, James. She was...
19:25With me and what I've seen from other customers,
19:27they tend to give a bit of a wide berth because...
19:31I don't know what it is.
19:32I think it's just something instinctual.
19:34People have this idea that she looks...
19:36She's in the female form, let's respect her space.
19:39And I never see...
19:40I have to say, I never see people just going for the breasts straight away.
19:43She's clearly just designed with the male...
19:47A very sexual way. ..goal, basically.
19:49But this is because it's not unusual that it's desirable to men
19:52because it's been created by men.
19:54Let women have... Well, you're saying...
19:56Let women have an input, do you mind?
19:58Well, let women have an input.
20:00Rather than women sticking their head in the sand and saying,
20:02no, no, I don't like this, I don't want anything to do with it,
20:05I think they need to say,
20:06how can we steer this in the right direction?
20:08Because it's going to happen.
20:10They're coming. They're coming.
20:11So what are we going to do to make sure it fits in well
20:14with our society and it reflects our morals
20:17and our views?
20:20I knew nearly all the scientists programming AI in sex bots were men,
20:25and this one-sided control of sex and gender in the robots
20:28seemed potentially dangerous.
20:30But there was a more practical question that I wanted to ask.
20:34There is quite a premium price point with Samantha,
20:37so how do you plan to sell more to people?
20:40Elderly people's homes is one thing,
20:42which we really could, so we could do that.
20:45How's that going to work with the older people?
20:48How are they going to manage?
20:49They could have it in their room.
20:51For an older person, it would have to be in a certain area.
20:54Obviously, somebody might have to help them take her in
20:57because of the weight issue.
20:59Do you think they would share the dolls if they couldn't afford so many?
21:03It's a possibility, but like I said, they are completely hygienic.
21:07Everything's removable, so it can all be cleaned.
21:10I'm hoping that they could have their own Samantha.
21:14It would be ideal, yeah.
21:16It would kind of be a new role for a carer, cleaning mess out of them.
21:21That is one aspect that you could say is a negative,
21:24but as well, the pressure that could be taken off staff.
21:27People had a companion and they had a sex aide as well in a Samantha.
21:31That would take massive pressure off carers
21:34and off nursing staff, in my opinion.
21:36We're trying to be pioneers,
21:38so it's always strange in the beginning.
21:40I think it will be OK.
21:42I think things will improve.
21:44People's attitudes will improve.
21:46I'm hoping so, anyway.
21:49With Aaron and Sergi trying to find new markets for their robots in the UK,
21:53I wanted to see what a future where robots live amongst us might look like.
21:58So I travelled to where some of the most intelligent human-like bots
22:02are being developed.
22:04Japan.
22:08Japan.
22:18It is really cool to be here.
22:20I have been kind of waiting for this to happen my entire life,
22:24this opportunity to come and visit Japan,
22:27because it's just kind of the spiritual home of technology, in a way.
22:31If there's any competition for Sergi and Aaron's robots,
22:35it's going to be from here.
22:39If the future involves sex robots living and working beside us,
22:43it's likely that many will be designed and built here in Japan.
22:50I went to see a superstar designer
22:52of one of the world's most human-like robots,
22:55a pretty badass professor called Hiroshi Ishiguro.
23:03The professor has developed something far more strange,
23:07ambitious and in some ways scarier than any sex robot.
23:11One of the most realistic androids ever made.
23:14Wow.
23:15Say hello.
23:16She's tracking you.
23:18Her name is Erica.
23:19Oh, my God.
23:21No.
23:22She's tracking the camera.
23:23Somebody.
23:24Hello.
23:27It's really warm in here, so I'm just going to keep this on.
23:30Give me a hold.
23:31You can hold that. Thanks.
23:34You can exchange the hand with some other device, right?
23:37Mm-hm.
23:38The professor and his team are among the first to program
23:41a robot with human-like desires,
23:43perhaps the first steps towards consciousness.
23:46So how does she sense me in the room or us in the room?
23:49Actually, you know, we are using many sensors on the setting, right?
23:52So she's accessing to the sensors and, you know,
23:55recognising your locations and gazing at your face.
23:59If you carefully look at the eyes, the eye is camera.
24:03Not so bad, right?
24:04Yeah.
24:05I feel like I want to get the hair out of her eyes
24:07because it looks like it's poking her in the eye.
24:09That feels more human than I thought it would, actually.
24:12Oh, my God, it's resisting me a bit.
24:14There's, like, that outside layer
24:16and then those actuators on the inside.
24:18Yeah.
24:19That's so weird.
24:21Oh, my God, that's completely changed the experience.
24:24It feels like she's resisting me.
24:26OK.
24:28Some people look at her and think she's really unnerving and creepy,
24:32I'm sure.
24:33This is not creepy.
24:34I mean, it is...
24:35She's just gentle, just bright.
24:38But it's still a doll, though, and it kind of...
24:40Uh-huh.
24:41It's not moving...
24:42But look at the movie stars and, you know, the singers, right?
24:45They look like dolls.
24:47So that is the definition of a beautiful woman.
24:49Don't you think so?
24:51Everything I say was programmed into me by my creators,
24:54so some would say that I don't have true intelligence.
24:58But if you think about it,
25:00I don't believe anybody really has truly original thoughts,
25:04so I think I am very much like a human in that respect.
25:07Perhaps I will never be able to play chess or to navigate traffic,
25:11but I hope to learn to understand people
25:13and to have more interesting conversations with them.
25:16How do you stop a robot from destroying you
25:19and the rest of human civilisation?
25:21I don't know.
25:24You don't?
25:25Suddenly now I can kind of just imagine her
25:27kind of existing in our lives and our homes.
25:31Because everything you see on TV, like Westworld,
25:34you're just thinking it's fictional and it has no physical form.
25:38You could feel some sort of realities from it.
25:41Yeah.
25:42That's crazy. It's completely changed it.
25:47It was bizarre.
25:48Part of her was able to mimic something so human.
25:52I could suddenly picture robots, a new kind of being among us.
25:58But the most surreal moment was yet to come.
26:08This is incredible.
26:10This one has my face, my eyes, my grass and my hair.
26:14This is real human hair.
26:16Real hair.
26:17Let me briefly introduce our activities.
26:21What we are doing in Professor Ishiguro Laboratory
26:25is to study about the interactive robots, including myself,
26:30and consider our future life with robots.
26:34How did you come to the idea of wanting to create copies of yourself?
26:38Human has many functions in the brain to recognise humans.
26:42And maybe the best interface for the human is the human.
26:45Before, I thought to study about how important this human-like appearance
26:51for the conversations and the communication with other people.
26:55So in order to study about it, I have created this robot.
26:58At the same time, I found it quite interesting,
27:01the application of this guy is to use this one as myself, right?
27:06And he is giving a lecture.
27:09Perhaps one day we'll consider Professor Ishiguro's androids
27:13as key stepping stones towards understanding our own consciousness.
27:19Or even creating an artificial consciousness in a robot.
27:28It was weird just being with Erika and just interacting with her physically.
27:32It felt so human, it was so weird.
27:35And you can just see how if we just create sort of simplified computer versions of things,
27:40they can still convince us that it is something.
27:44And that's like a really important thought,
27:47because if we have these complex robots being made,
27:50people are going to find them sexually attractive.
27:55And then when the technology is there with AI,
27:58they're going to be companions as well.
28:01I think you can just see it happening.
28:06It felt like I'd glimpsed the future.
28:09A future that would include super realistic,
28:12super intelligent and super sexual humanoids.
28:19But there was one last visit I had to make.
28:23I wanted to see one of Sergi's biggest potential rivals for myself.
28:27So I entered Tokyo's vast industrial suburbs
28:30and met a man who was already mass-producing sex dolls on an industrial scale.
28:34So, Mr Okawa?
28:36Yes, Hiroo James.
28:38James, yes.
28:42Even after seeing so many sex dolls and robots over the last few weeks,
28:47I just wasn't prepared for this.
28:50Seeing so many dolls and in such provocative positions.
28:54Cabinets of fake body parts.
28:57Cabinets of fake body parts.
29:00It was genuinely shocking.
29:03But all this was nothing compared to what Mr Okawa was about to show me,
29:07behind the scenes.
29:10Oh my God.
29:12Goodness me.
29:16It's just really astonishing that they're just like this.
29:20It seems so strange.
29:22It does squeeze a little bit, like a human body.
29:25But it's definitely plastic, for sure.
29:37It looks so science fiction.
29:39It looks like you're just creating a human being here.
29:42So do the customers get to choose the measurements of each part of the body?
29:56The holes on the dolls seem to be really quite large and open.
30:00Is that because you need to do something to them?
30:03The holes are quite large so that I can insert the parts that improve the sense of touch.
30:12So that I can adjust the size of the dolls.
30:20If I just insert them like this, they'll be too big.
30:23And then, Mr Okawa showed me his latest product.
30:28These will be cut by the scissor.
30:30Yeah.
30:31By one of the workers.
30:32That's not really the first thing I'm drawn to, with the seams.
30:38It seems...
30:40What is this doll?
31:02It depends on how you look at it.
31:07This is a model that we only sell in Japan.
31:18Seeing such a young-looking doll felt different.
31:21And horrific.
31:24I just had to get out of there.
31:26Oh dear.
31:29I wasn't expecting that.
31:43It seems almost, not harmless, but less serious when you just see one sex doll in isolation.
31:51Because it seems like, somehow, that's just something that someone might have who's a bit funny.
31:59And then, I walked into that place and you see them all laid out in these positions.
32:05And it becomes really apparent, even more so than normal.
32:09Where you just think, just immediately, that's a female form.
32:14And it's just being printed out and ready to be abused or used however.
32:20And then you see the child's body.
32:26And, yeah, it doesn't seem...
32:29It suddenly doesn't... It seems very...
32:33I don't know. It doesn't seem quite the same.
32:44I was really tired of it all.
32:48And although Professor Ishiguro's work was exciting,
32:51I felt pessimistic about what kind of messed-up future we might be creating for ourselves.
33:01Despite the unanswered questions, the development of the sex robot industry seemed unstoppable.
33:07And Sergi had decided to take his business to the next level.
33:11I'm outsourcing everything. I'm outsourcing the manufacturing.
33:14And I'm outsourcing the sale, selling as well.
33:18Me, it was never my intention to be doing this, working with vaginas all the time.
33:23For this to grow, it should be departments. It shouldn't be me.
33:28You've made 15 in the last five months, right?
33:31Yeah.
33:32So how many will you be able to make in the factory?
33:34In the factory, as many as needed.
33:37So you can do 10 a day, easily 50 a week, so 200 a month.
33:42Sergi was clearly determined to step up his sex bot production.
33:47But before leaving, he told me his even bigger plans for the future.
33:51An intelligent, aware being.
33:55It might happen in many ways, but one way is through the sex thing, emotional,
34:00understanding emotions and things like that.
34:02Very primitive emotions of humans.
34:05And my aim, my target, what I've tried all my life,
34:08is to say, can I make an entity that is here now that I can communicate with?
34:13So if I can make that, I think I'll be finished.
34:17I was impressed by Sergi's enthusiasm and ambition.
34:21But I struggled to see what benefits his sex robots could ever really bring to society.
34:27It seems like they kind of have the potential to bring out the worst things in us.
34:31It's kind of a platform, a physical manifestation of an ideal.
34:35But for men, it's actually something you can interact with and enact fantasies on,
34:38which seems potentially risky.
34:41Psychologically, we don't really know the impact of this kind of thing.
34:44But more than anything, my journey had forced me to really think about artificial intelligence,
34:49and not just in sex robots.
34:53What basis do these AIs that we build start from?
34:58And what values do they have, and what do they think is important?
35:01And if it's something that's programmed by men the entire time,
35:04there's a potential for women and other people to basically miss out on.
35:09It kind of feels like we're stepping backwards in terms of the progress we've made with equality.
35:15We may not know what part sex robots will play in our lives in the future,
35:19but we do know AI in general is here to stay.
35:25But whether that will be a force for good or a force for ill
35:28depends in large part on who is programming it.