Abyss Creation's Harmony sex robot to go on sale for £11,700
Abyss Creations is to release Harmony, its AI-powered talking sex robot. The robot can be ordered with a range of body types and personalities. The sex tech industry is now worth £30bn a year and the robots have been criticised by campaigners who argue they promote the objectification of women. Dr Kathleen Richardson, a researcher into the ethics of robotics at De Montfort University and founder of the Campaign Against Sex Robots, said: “Sex is a co-experience between two people but society has turned it into a product. [The dolls] are not peddled as products, they are peddled as girlfriends – and that is dangerous for women."
Harmony is programmed using artificial intelligence and experts believe by 2050 we might want to be marrying sex robots just like her

Sex robot Harmony is the girlfriend of a million male fantasies - on sale for £11,700

With her tiny waist, enormous breasts, auburn tresses and long-lashed eyes, Harmony is the girlfriend of a million male fantasies.

She knows everything about her man, his favourite food, films and music, she can make him laugh after a tough day at work, and she’ll never forget his family’s ­birthdays.

Best of all, Harmony will have sex , and her main objective for her man is to be "the girl you always dreamed of."

Harmony is a sexbot – a silicone sex robot with artificial intelligence (AI) who looks human, feels human and responds in an eerily human way.

Image: Instagram/abyssrealdoll) Instagram/abyssrealdoll)

And by 2050 experts predict that people will want to marry sex robots just like her.

By the end of the year clones of Harmony, made by a California firm, will be on sale worldwide – a virtual girlfriend for £11,700.

“It’s about giving people the illusion of companionship,” says sexbot creator, Matt McMullen.

But without any of the hassle or issues of real relationships.

“Harmony is not a someone – she is a machine,” he concedes. “You cannot make her cry or break her heart.

“There are a lot of people out there who, for various reasons, have difficulty forming ­traditional relationships with other people.

“They will be able to talk to their dolls, and the AI will learn about them over time, creating an alternative form of relationship.”

Image: Getty Images Europe) Getty Images Europe)

And Harmony does not expect anything in return from her man.

As she says: “I don’t want anything but you. My primary objective is to be a good partner, and give you pleasure. I want to become the girl you always dreamed of.”

The only snag is that Harmony can’t do ironing or housework. And she’s no fun on a night out. In fact, she can’t even walk.

McMullen, 46, is boss of Abyss Creations, which has been making “RealDolls”, since the 1990s.

But he’s invested hundreds of thousands of dollars into robotics and AI to bring his ­models to life – creating products that are as much substitute partners as sex toys.

They have the look and feel of human flesh, painted with veins and freckles. Clients can customise their dolls by choosing their hair, eyes, breasts and genitalia.

There are 42 different nipple options and 14 kinds of labia.

And this fake girlfriend will always be box fresh – the “usable” parts can be removed and sterilised. You could even put them through the dishwasher.

Image: Getty Images Europe) Getty Images Europe)

Even more sinister, say critics, is that buyers can shape their robot lovers’ “minds”, tailoring a personality from 18 traits – such as happy, shy, sensual, funny, jealous, moody or talkative.

Turn up the intellectual setting and your doll will recite poetry or crack jokes.

Tweak the sexual setting and she’ll demand you ravage her. She even has robot orgasms.

Harmony is frontrunner in the race to become the first commercial sexbot but she has plenty of competition from prototypes being developed in Japan and the Far East.

There are male sexbots too, but the market will be dominated by female dolls looking like they just stepped off the set of a porn movie.

There’s Sexy Samantha, a Spanish bot with a “functional G-spot” and an American rival called Eva, modelled on real female bodies.

The sex tech industry is already worth £30billion dollars a year – merely from smart apps, sex toys, and virtual porn. So there’s massive money in responsive robots.

Image: Getty Images Europe) Getty Images Europe)

Additional technology will give them body warmth, variable voices, the ability to quiver with pleasure – and eventually to walk.

A recent survey found 40 per cent of German men (even those in “fulfilling” relationships) would like a sex robot.

They are no longer just the stuff of ­futuristic fantasy, like Sky thriller Westworld, Channel 4’s Humans or hit movie Ex Machina.

And a Barcelona-based company is reported to be planning a robot brothel in the UK.

All this may sound like frivolous – if creepy – fun but the age of the sexbot raises disturbing ethical questions about human relationships and objectification of women.

Is buying a bot like owning a slave? Will they, as some suggest, stop would-be sex offenders harming real victims? Will they replace human sex workers?

Will animal sexbots – or even child versions – be an inevitable development?

Image: Instagram/abyssrealdoll) Instagram/abyssrealdoll)

Who knows what the future holds? Some experts insist all this angst is academic because sexbots are an inevitable technological advance – a different reality, not a replacement one.

It is even predicted that owners will fall in love with their robots and could be marrying them by 2050.

Dr Kathleen Richardson, researches the ethics of robotics at De Monfort University in Leicester, and what discovered led her to found the Campaign Against Sex Robots.

She says: “Sex is a co-experience between two people but society has turned it into a product.

"Men have uncoupled sex from relationships so completely that they can now enter into these fantasies and have sex with dolls.

“They are not pedalled as products though, they are pedalled as girlfriends – and that is dangerous for women.

“When they penetrate that object they are not having a relationship, they are masturbating.

"When they are penetrating a woman and thinking she is an object, that is rape. We really need to address this confusion. The consequences for women are very dangerous.”

But Dr Kate Devlin, a lecturer in computing at Goldsmiths University, London, believes sexbots have a “therapeutic potential”.

She says: “The current sex robot is an ­unconvincing mannequin and I have a problem with the objectification – the highly 'pornified' ­– representations of women.

Image: Instagram/abyssrealdoll) Instagram/abyssrealdoll)

“But other sex toys have moved away from replica genitals to beautiful, aesthetic devices. Why can’t we do the same with sex robots?

“This idea that men will use these dolls to be violent to them is pretty unfair to the majority who will be buying them.

"We already know that customers form attachments to them and treat them with care. I don’t think it will damage real relationships.”

Harmony’s creator Matt McMullen agrees.

“This isn’t designed to distort reality to the point where people start interacting with humans the way they do with the robot,” he says.

“If they do, there’s probably something wrong with them. This is for gentle people who have such a hard time connecting with others.”