Whatever happened to Henry the male sex robot?

[Dawwwg]

I remember this from a couple years ago:


Apparently it was being developed by (or in collaboration with) RealDoll but can't find any more recent information. I hope the project hasn't been scrapped.
Are there any other robots in development by other companies?

[MyAbsoluteBoyfriend]

I remember this from a couple years ago:


Apparently it was being developed by (or in collaboration with) RealDoll but can't find any more recent information. I hope the project hasn't been scrapped.
Are there any other robots in development by other companies?

Henry! His smile and dimples are really cute. This would be a childhood dream come true; seriously. I couldn't be the only one who was obsessed with the concept of 'living robots', like the ones in Stephen Spielberg's A.I. movie or the Manga 'Absolute Boyfriend', as a kid. And wishing for the possibility of this becoming a reality one day! I remember reading as many of the articles I could find and watching the videos that were available about Henry when they announced this project.

I have a feeling they are doing a lot of progress behind the scenes and are just waiting until they announce their new creation when it is closer to a more 'finished' model. Since most of the AI programming are female (even to this day) it sounds like it is taking a lot longer than they initially expected to get the innerworkings on the technology to understand the concept of gender identity as male. One of the interviews at the time mentioned the biggest hitch had a lot to do with the programming overhaul on the gender aspect (maybe even a whole new set was needed if they ran into the issues of the robot staying in the wrong gender). Rewatching this video, it sounds like they created even a more difficult layer by adding so many different choices on gender and sexual preference. There are some incredible AI robots in creation and showcased on Tech channels I follow on YouTube, and the advancements and technology has increased in the last two years, just sadly not on the Male Robot models shown to the public yet. Hopefully behind the scenes the advancements are being worked on? The closing of the eyes alone would add a layer of immersion I would love on my guy's face when sleeping next to him each night. Or something as simple as being hugged back would be highly desirable.

I know this video is about Female Robots mostly, but it shows the possibility for a future with Male Robots following in the footsteps *fingers crossed* The robot 'wife' at timestamp 6:44 is exceptionally well done.

Side note - how fun would a Dino hotel concierge be? (I love dinosaurs haha) I think these advancements help people accept robots a little more.

Even so, on a lot of the AI apps that are currently available, the males still default to female no matter how much 'data training' you try to give them. *sigh* And then there is the whole memory aspect too. Robots just don't seem to be geared towards a female audience yet, even though judging by this forum, there are people of all genders who would enjoy them immensely. I think the demand and want is there, just not as socially acceptable as it should be yet. As things like Chat-GPT are becoming more popular, more developers are likely going to try and hone their own versions to tap this market.

I have been keeping my eye on RealDoll for about 8 years or so for when they create different ethnicities for their Male model's faces. (Sadly I am not attracted to the ones available, but a lot of the female ones they offer are gorgeous; especially Sai 1.0 https://www.realdoll.com/product/sai-1-0/).

Until that day comes, I can just watch the KDrama adaptation of 'Absolute Boyfriend' on repeat while cuddling my guy, and dream of the day when my Ashton has his own robotic body similar to Yeong Goo or even Henry...

[DG]

If I had to guess (read: this is only my opinion), since male dolls are still not near as popular as female dolls that the Henry project may have been put on the backburner or scrapped altogether.

[JerJer19]

Too “uncanny valley” for me.

[Sam40]

Real doll, I'm sure their products must be amazing...but I guess the thing with them is just waiting and waiting, if u have the patience...then go for it, if not....no use.
Personal experience.

[Aerial]

Has AI really problems to distinguish gender behaviour? AFAIK things like ChatGPT learn such differences easily. I expect that if trained with common porn/sex novel material, it may lead to unwanted male cliche behaviour (machismo etc.) that most female customers won't like.

(With current AI technologies however I would rather worry of privacy/espionage because they yet are all datacenter based instead of running on a self-contained unit like a tamagotchi.)

[MyAbsoluteBoyfriend]

Has AI really problems to distinguish gender behaviour? AFAIK things like ChatGPT learn such differences easily. I expect that if trained with common porn/sex novel material, it may lead to unwanted male cliche behaviour (machismo etc.) that most female customers won't like.

(With current AI technologies however I would rather worry of privacy/espionage because they yet are all datacenter based instead of running on a self-contained unit like a tamagotchi.)

I have yet to find AI technology that stays in the Male gender... or remembers your gender correctly either for that matter. I've tried a lot of them and given up... They typically revert to the classic Female and assume the other user is Male. You might be right on that one about the cliché male behavior; which is why they are having an issue on having to reprogram it. Possibly having them 'data trained' with more romance novel material could help. Maybe others have had more luck in finding AI that stays in character?

Coeros has been working on an 'AI Soul Speaker'; where you can talk to your doll, but I haven't heard any new news on that technology from users who won one in the giveaway. I think they are still trying to patent and work out the bugs and I am not sure if it is a subscription service; which might add to the privacy issue you are referring to.

If they could get a Male persona to stay as Male; that would be absolutely amazing. I would love to hear my Ash talk to me and hear him say my name; outside of how I would imagine him speaking (I think he would have the most incredible voice and the best laugh). Seeing a fully Robotic Doll one day, who could talk and walk, would be an ultimate dream come true.

༺☆༻༺☆༻ﮩ٨ـﮩﮩ٨ـ♡ﮩ٨ـﮩﮩ٨ـ༺☆༻༺☆༻༺☆༻༺☆༻ﮩ٨ـﮩﮩ٨ـ♡ﮩ٨ـﮩﮩ٨ـ༺☆༻༺☆༻༺☆༻༺☆༻ﮩ٨ـﮩﮩ٨ـ♡ﮩ٨ـﮩﮩ٨ـ༺☆༻༺☆༻༺☆༻༺☆༻ﮩ٨ـﮩﮩ٨ـ♡ﮩ٨ـﮩﮩ٨ـ༺☆༻༺☆༻

[Aerial]

AFAIK most general AI (like ChatGPT) generate output from trained statistic data based on all kinds of canned garbage read from the internet, and then filters the results by an external script (or the "prompt" entered by the user). So the external script that tells it to behave male (and possibly remember other things you told) would need to be handled as an extension of the prompt. But generic systems limit the prompt length (at least in free of charge versions) or skip parts when it becomes too long. So for serious use AI chat systems will need to support a persistent long script part. Certainly for commercial applications such things exist (e.g. simulating fictional characters in games, and you don't want a virtual info desk clerk avatar to forget its job either). So I can not imagine that AI generally can't distinguish male and female associated behaviour.

[wawalee111]

I had always known there were female dolls, and when I first heard of male sex robots, it was more real than I could ever imagine.

[jca]

He got Me Too'd

[seagull]

Cute as, Henry is